March 18, 2002 - March 22, 2002
News - March 22,2002
PlusNet Confirm Final ADSL Prices
By:mark.j @ 9:02:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] PlusNet has finally confirmed the official prices for their recently discounted broadband R/ADSL services, which should go live from 1st April 2002. Full press release follows:
PlusNet confirm ADSL Launch at £22.99
There are four different variants on offer all based around a £22.99 a month subscription and the BT activation fee, passed on at cost (£58.75).
The standard offering is based around an annual contract, however for an addition one-off £11.75 Administration fee, monthly contracts will also be available at £22.99. For customers wishing to minimise their initial costs, we also provide an option that builds in the activation fee at £28.38 per month for the first year, reverting to £22.99 per month thereafter.
The fourth option is to choose a BT Engineer Installed / managed solution, including hardware, for the same £22.99 per month, with a total installation and set-up fee of £246.75.
Alistair Wyse, Technical Director stated, "Our consumer ADSL service, reinforced with the automation and accountability of provisioning and support, along with our commitment to quality of service, means that PlusNet is the best choice for ADSL in the UK."
As part of the capacity planning strategy in place, PlusNet has been working closely with BT to manage the Network requirements in the coming months. Visibility of which will be made available to customers through our industry leading portal (http://portal.plus.net). Wyse commented, "Other ISPS have fallen into the trap of overselling their capacity and not being able to efficiently provision the orders placed with them. This will not be a problem at PlusNet, and the accountability in place will ensure that our customers are satisfied with the way we expand the DSL service.”
With pricing already at the leading edge in the market place, PlusNet give its customers the ability to get an even better deal through its referral scheme, which gives customers a monthly value for all accounts referred. Wyse concluded, "Customers get 50p per month for every consumer ADSL referral for as long as the account is with us. Due to the automation, this is both profitable for us while giving the customer access to the best ADSL deal in the country."
The prices include VAT. |
Netscape ISP Closes In June
By:mark.j @ 8:56:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Following on from previous items, which reported on how AOL UK were to close Netscape Online (nine months ago), we now have an official date of closure. Netscape Online will officially close on 27th June 2002:
In an email to its Netscape Online users, AOL UK claims that service is being canned due to the "increasing popularity of unmetered and broadband services".
In a bid to woo Netscape Online users over to AOL UK's subscription service the ISP is offering punters a three-month free trial of AOL UK's unmetered service.
Netscape Online users have until May 31 to take-up the offer.
It's worth remembering that this only affects the ISP, the Netscape portal and web browser will not change, although AOL has other plans for them. More @ The Register. |
AOL Time Warner's European Plan
By:mark.j @ 8:50:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] AOL Time Warner has plans to generate half its revenue from outside of the United States by the end of the decade (2010) and its European options could be the answer.
Indeed cheaper broadband is one of the many reasons they're looking to grow in Europe. However there are also fears that AOL UK could increase the price of UK unmetered access:
Flat-rate pricing for telecommunications in Britain and France has helped AOL Europe, and Lynton is hopeful Germany will offer the same type of pricing, boosting growth there.
AOL officials in Europe complain that high charges by telecoms operators for high-speed communications have barred them from offering much more than basic dial-up services.
But former British Telecoms monopoly BT Group's decision to halve high-speed Internet prices will now allow AOL to offer a bundled rate at more attractive margins and roll out high-speed access via digital subscriber lines, Lynton said.
Unfortunately ZDNet's item finishes up by highlighting how a recent price increase by Freeserve (unmetered dialup) could also allow AOL UK to do the same.
We can't help but feel that the major ISPs could talk themselves into this, Freeserve use to cost £12.99 (now £13.99), AOL is £14.99, as is BTOpenworld, and they don't need to be more expensive! Not to mention the new wholesale FRIACO reduction (7%) that Oftel is currently pushing for. |
News - March 21,2002
Women Help Fuel Euro Internet Boom
By:mark.j @ 3:47:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] A new survey combining results from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK has found that between February 2001 and 2002, the number of female Web users increased by 29% (25.1 Million):
This compared to an increase of 24 percent male users from 31.9 million to 40.1 million during the same period.
Men are online for longer periods although women spend more time doing everyday tasks such as shopping, organising travel, banking online and sending e-greetings cards, according to the latest research from UK-based Internet analysts Jupiter MMXI.
The report's author Michele Polizaiani said if Web sites wish to target a female audience they must understand the type of content that appeals to women.
"Clearly sites that allow women to perform a function or provide information to help with their daily lives in some way are popular," she said. In February this year women spent seven hours on the Internet compared to 10 hours for men, who mainly browse, read content and download applications.
You can read a full report on the latest research @ CNN World. |
Supanet ISP On Tiny PCs
By:mark.j @ 3:39:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Following a decision by Time Computers, Tiny's brand owner, to switch from Tiscali, all new Tiny PC systems will now come loaded with Supanet's ISP software instead:
Supanet expects to gain up to 150,000 customers a year through the move. The decision is hardly a surprise - Supanet is effectively the house ISP of Time Group, with which it shares ownership through the Mohammed family.
Supanet claims that it is the UK's sixth biggest ISP.
More @ The Register. |
EzAccess Drop Unmetered Price
By:mark.j @ 3:26:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Thedotcomplete has today issued a service update detailing out some of the recent problems with the service, which should now be resolved.
They also took a moment to announce a reduction in the cost of their residential unmetered package from £14.99 to £12.99, which makes that 7:1 contention more difficult to maintain.
As reported, thedotcomplete.net suffered a Maximum of 30 minutes of downtime at 7pm on Tuesday which also caused authentication errors when connecting to the service. The problem appears to be resolved, it appears that there was in issue with the DNS server which went down promply at 6pm.
The Server was then rebooted and a full system diagnostic was done; revealing some critical File system errors. The server was then taken back-offline at 7pm, while we re-installed some core applications. No eMails where lost as a result because of the presence of a seconary DNS Server.
We have also increased our cacapity, allowing more users to connect to the service. We will also be dropping the price of Unmetered Home access to £12.99. Please visit the site for more informattion: http://www.ezaccess.co.uk
Once again the ability to pass this update through even a basic Word Processor has again been missed =). We also note the cunning way in which EzAccess (the website) has enclosed MSNs own site into an IFrame to fill out the content. |
BTOpenworld Protects Children
By:mark.j @ 3:22:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTOpenworld has also announced its backing for a new website filtering application, which gives adults better control over access to certain sites:
BTOPENWORLD BACKS ICRA TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM OFFENSIVE WEB CONTENT
- new filtering system allows adults to control access to sites -
BTopenworld is today hosting the launch of a filter system that tackles the concerns of parents about Internet content by working with the content providers. The new filtering system, launched today by the Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA), was developed by BT subsidiary, IDL, and funded by BTopenworld.
The system allows content providers to label their sites and parents can then use the filter to block access to sites which they feel are inappropriate for their children.
BTopenworld was the first ISP to sign up to the service. ICRA hopes to have the endorsement of every major ISP in the world by the end of the year.
ICRA's aim is to give parents peace of mind by working with the content providers. The self-regulation approach of ICRAfilter ensures that parents can take responsibility for defining the parameters of what is allowed, but sites remain fully accessible for authorised adult users.
"The fact that the Internet is largely unregulated is both its biggest strength and its weakness," said Alison Ritchie, CEO at BTopenworld. "While content providers and ISPs should not act as censors, it's essential that they operate by a sound set of ethics. The empowerment of parents and teachers to decide what is and is not acceptable is a big step towards making the Internet a far safer place for children to surf."
"We're committed not only to evangelising the Internet, but also promoting responsible surfing. As part of this strategy, we've worked alongside ICRA for six years now, and will continue to support it in as many ways as possible," she continued.
"This launch is the culmination of several years of hard work for ICRA. Throughout this time, BTopenworld has been one of our strongest supporters, on both the financial and technical sides," said Stephen Balkam, CEO at ICRA. "BTopenworld has shown its commitment to our cause by becoming the first company to sign up to be labelled. The fact that this move was followed swiftly by other big names in the industry is a real endorsement of ICRA's aims and work. With this start, we fully expect to become the de-facto standard for content rating over the next few years." |
Keeping In Touch - BTOpenworld
By:mark.j @ 3:14:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] For some unknown reason BTO has today issued the results of their latest research concerning the trend for children who have left home to return to the family because of financial and other pressures.
Since this is from BTOpenworld, yet largely irrelevant to ISPs, we'll only post the most related aspect:
For contemporary families, technology is central to strengthening these bonds of friendship. While the telephone remains the key tool for keeping in contact with their kids for more than 90 per cent of parents, around 60 per cent of those who have Internet access say they regularly exchange emails with their children to keep in touch. Some 60 per cent of parents email their children every week; and more than 30 per cent email twice a week. Only 20 per cent of parents rely on letters to keep in touch with their children.
"What's interesting is that many parents have found email brings a new dimension to their relationship with their kids. Many say they show a different side of themselves through email, a side that they might not bring out in verbal communication. The same often seems to be true of children communicating with their mums and dads through email," adds Ingram. |
netAxis Extend Free DSL Install Offer
By:mark.j @ 3:07:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] | Net4Nowt has reported that netAxis is to extend its free installation offer for broadband ADSL services until the end of April. The ISP is already known to have cut the cost of its monthly subscription to £24.95 +vat PM following BTs recent reductions, which become official on 1st April next month. |
Europe's Largest ISP Improves
By:mark.j @ 3:00:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] T-Online, Europe's largest Internet Service Provider, managed to reduce its core loss during Q4-2001 last year after reaping the fruits of cost reductions at its German wing.
T-Online said on Thursday its losses before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were 31.2 million euros (£19.3 Million) in the fourth quarter, down from 68.1 million euros a year ago, on sales of 331 million euros, up from 254.5 million euros.
The group, 82% owned by Deutsche Telekom (German telecoms), said its full year EBITDA loss was 189 million euros against a loss of 121.6 million euros in 2000, but better than its own forecast of 200 million euros EBITDA loss made three months ago.
T-Online's business is still largely dependent on the fees it charges for Internet access, which it said made up almost 80% of fourth quarter sales. |
Government To Protect Online Privacy?
By:mark.j @ 2:43:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] In an almost perverse twist of irony the very government that's helping to erode our online privacy has said that the Internet will destroy civil liberties unless action is taken:
According to the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), Labour has not yet adequately addressed the political ramifications of new technologies, particularly the internet.
Dr Ian Kearns, senior research fellow of the IPPR, outlined the problem in launching policy paper, Code Red. He claimed: "If the government doesn't explicitly defend personal liberties then these may be swept away by the growth of new technologies."
Kearns said the large amounts of data easily available, routinely stored and shared made the internet potentially a fast-track way to create a 'Big Brother' society.
Hands up all those able to spot the second irony of calling the paper 'Code Red', which is also the nickname of a very damaging Virus =).
It's worth noting the last paragraph of Silicon's item where the director of Privacy International, Simon Davies, says: "Rather than protecting the government is systematically eroding human rights in its technology policy."
It makes for a good read, yet it's shocking to think that it took them two years to realise it. |
Tough Times - NTLs Restructuring
By:mark.j @ 8:50:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Shareholders in the UKs largest and most troubled cable operator, NTL, could be left with less than 5% of the company after the savage restructuring is finally completed:
According to investment bank Merrill Lynch, the actual cost of the restructuring the debt-laden cable company will be more than previously expected.
Silicon reports that NTL will release its full-year results next week, which was delayed from today and isn't expected to be the best of news. |
Combined (all-in-one) DSL Modem
By:mark.j @ 8:46:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Lightning, a Swiss networking company, is set to launch an all-in-one hardware solution for broadband ADSL subscribers this year. The product will combine a firewall, router and DSL modem into one box:
The box will be available this quarter for the enterprise market, with a cheaper version coming for small businesses in the third quarter of the year, and one aimed for home users by the end of 2002, the company said.
"People used to think that routers were secure enough," said Gilles Trachsel, product marketing manager at Lightning. "Since the beginning of this year, they have been requesting firewalls."
The move fits in with the spread of "wires-only" DSL provision, in which the user must buy his or her own modem. Lightning's plan is to offer the product for a little over whatever the current cost of a DSL modem is -- a saving over the cost of buying two boxes.
It's certainly a very clever idea, although until full details are made available it'd be hard to comment about its feasibility for the UK market, not to mention the cost. More @ ZDNet. |
£14 Million To Wales - Broadband
By:mark.j @ 8:41:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Those living in Wales may like to know that the Welsh Assembly is reported to be investing £14m into the country's broadband infrastructure. Logica has won the deal the roll-out the technology, which should cover all local exchanges!:
The deal will lead to the creation of a country-wide broadband network linking all 22 Local Education Authorities in Wales and eight University sites.
The network part of National Assembly's Lifelong Learning initiative, linking educational establishments and libraries.
The contract includes all hardware, bandwidth for three years, as well as professional services and maintenance. Logical will also provide a bespoke managed service solution for the network.
Unfortunately it's not clear exactly what technology will be used, although we can surmise that it's ADSL by the language and some of the previous reports we've seen. Now if only BT could do this in the UK. More @ Silicon. |
News - March 20,2002
BTOpenworld See Subscription Boost
By:mark.j @ 3:23:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The number of people subscribing to BTOpenworlds broadband service has surged in the last two weeks by 16,000 extra users, which is in-line with their recent price cut announcement (timescale):
Speaking to The Register for the first time since her appointment just before Christmas, BTopenworld chief exec, Alison Ritchie, said: "This is very encouraging."
And she believes that BT Group's broader target of installing a million DSL lines over the next year is achievable adding that she wanted a "healthy slice" of that market.
Of course, with more than 100,000 broadband users already BTopenworld has a head start on its rivals. Plus its commitment to chuck around £10 million behind marketing broadband is also sure to help it pick-up punters.
The Register notes that Alison Ritchie's "number one" priority is to improve customer satisfaction. They also asked whether BTO would follow Freeserve with a rise in the cost of its unmetered service, to which she replied that they could, "neither rule it in or out", yet noted an upwards trend.
We find the prospect of a price rise interesting considering BTO is already well priced @ £14.99 and going above that isn’t justified. There’s now a very real danger that some ISPs could ‘talk’ the prices up unrealistically. Not including the pending price cut to FRIACO services, all very interesting. |
Concerns Over New Broadband Plan
By:mark.j @ 3:06:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It has emerged today that the governments recently announced plan for pushing broadband in Buckfastleigh (small Devon town) is under scrutiny because they don't yet know how it will be achieved in practice:
This isn't a problem, though, according to the Department of Trade and Industry. It claims that the Buckfastleigh project will be an opportunity to find the best, and most cost-efficient, way of bringing high-speed Internet services to a rural community.
"It's very early days, but the whole point of the Buckfastleigh project is that they will have to find the best way of getting broadband into the town," explained a DTI spokesman. "Buckfastleigh has been chosen because it's the kind of place the big telcos are unlikely to invest in."
The DTI would not speculate on what kinds of technology were likely to be used in Buckfastleigh, but said that both satellite and wireless solutions would be examined.
We can't help but feel that the government could end up taking so long to sort this out that the same £30 Million might end up being re-announced for a fourth time at the end of the year =). More @ ZDNet. |
AOL UK To Close CompuServe ISP?
By:mark.j @ 2:57:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] CompuServe is one of the UKs, nay the worlds, oldest ISPs, yet this isn't likely to stop its owners at AOL UK giving it the chop:
CompuServe users could find out as early as tomorrow that AOL UK intends to pull the service with customers offered the chance to transfer to AOL UK's subscription service.
Asked to confirm or deny the allegation a senior spokesman for AOL UK said: "We have nothing to announce."
In September 2001 AOL UK rushed to defend speculation that it planned to can CompuServe following its decision to close its subscription-free ISP Netscape Online.
The Register clearly notes that this isn't the first time CompuServe has face an uncertain future, indeed AOL likes to merge things into its own brand wherever possible and CompuServe could be next.
While it’d be a pity to see such a historical name go, we can’t say that such a move would be surprising. |
Click0808 Unmetered ISP Update 2
By:mark.j @ 10:39:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] We were able to get a few more details on the controversial Click0808 service today, as follows:
We do have a contention ratio of 8 to 1, and at this moment we do not have a cut-off time. We do not apply any restriction on our service.
We are aware of other ISP in the UK and other countries around the world as we do provide similar product overseas. Other ISP's who charge more then what we are charging is based on greedy principle.
We'd disagree with the 'greedy' comment considering how difficult it is for an ISP to make a profit at even the standard £14.99 price point, let alone £77.88 Per Annum.
Unfortunately the economics of Click0808 are still too tedious for us to be positive, although if you're brave enough then by all means subscribe. We’d suggest that only light users do so since heavy usage could easily damage the service. |
New Unmetered ISP - GlowingSheep
By:mark.j @ 9:46:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Yes, yet another new unmetered dialup ISP has launched, this time calling itself GlowingSheep and touting three eerily familiar packages:
Evening & Weekend
6pm-8am Mon to Fri / 6pm Fri to 8am Mon
£7.99 per month
Weekday
8am-6pm Mon to Fri
£7.99 per month
Anytime
£13.99 per month
The packages include the following:
2 Hour Cut-Off (can redial)
10 Minute Inactivity Timeout
7 Email Addresses
10Mb Webspace
Technical Support charged at national rate
85,000 Newsgroups
Unfortunately several of the sites links (Signup page etc.) came up with Java errors when we tried to click them. |
AlphaPhe.Net Introduce Extra Service
By:mark.j @ 9:26:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The recently launched unmetered ISP AlphaPhe.net has just introduced an additional unmetered service called 'Now Surf':
With our newly introduced service, "Now Surf", you can get 6 hours of unrestricted 0808 Internet access instantly for just £3 using our "Now Surf" top up line.
You can get full details on how the service works in their FAQ section HERE, although given the price we'd probably suggest it as being a good way of testing the ISPs services rather than a static package. |
Broadband? What's That?
By:mark.j @ 9:20:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Over the last few years we've seen a number of items highlighting the lack of knowledge among the general public regarding modern Internet connection technologies.
Today a new survey has found that Internet services in Britain may be complicated by a lack of basic computing knowledge among potential subscribers.
With less than two weeks to go before landmark broadband price cuts from leading phone line wholesaler BT, the survey of existing users indicated that setting up a faster connection could confuse even online "experts".
The survey, commissioned by a U.S. firm selling online customer service and trouble-shooting software, found that while less than 10% of those surveyed considered themselves Internet "beginners", while two-thirds experienced difficulties getting started with high-speed connections.
Expensive queries to call centres are also a problem, one third of the 362 broadband users surveyed saying they had phoned up to three times per month.
Despite widespread adoption of Internet access in Britain, less than 1% of the population has the broadband access needed to download the large amounts of data required for video and audio files.
"This survey suggests that much work still needs to occur in order to achieve 'Broadband Britain'," said Donald Tait, research analyst at consultancy Frost & Sullivan." Crucially, services providers need to resolve these basic service issues. Otherwise, broadband will be stifled before it reaches critical mass." |
People Don't Want Pay-For Content
By:mark.j @ 9:11:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It's fair to say that for the average Internet surfer the subscription to an unmetered or broadband ISP is cost enough, let alone the prospect of having to pay for the content you read.
Thankfully some analysts at a key conference for media and marketing executives have warned online companies that consumers are unlikely to pay subscription fees for Internet content:
Jupiter Media Metrix analyst David Card says consumers are less likely to pay for content as time goes on.
He adds 70% of online adults surveyed by Jupiter can't understand why anyone would pay for any online content.
When the respondents were asked what they would be willing to pay for if free content vanished, 63 percent replied "nothing". "If anything, people are less willing to pay than they were 18 months ago".
The Ananova item notes that some online multiplayer games manage to succeed with such fees, although this is hardly a good comparison for websites, which you're only likely to visit for a few minutes every now and again. |
News - March 19,2002
Virtual ISP Launch New Unmetered ISP
By:mark.j @ 3:42:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] It's another one =), the latest ISP to delve into the depths of unmetered Internet access is none other than Virtual ISP, a provider normally targeted at business provision:
Virtual ISP has just launched it's new Unmetered Internet Access
The first package Home-Time priced at £7.99 per month offers internet access for Evenings and Weekends.
And the second Business-Time offers 24/7 internet access for only £13.99 per month.
Both packages come with
10Mb Web Space
7 E-mail Addresses
Access to 80,000+ Newsgroups
User Control Panel
Technical Support charged at National Rate
Online setup for instant activation of accounts.
Signup at our website http://www.virtualisp.co.uk
Unfortunately we were unable to find further details on their website, the only related link goes directly to a signup page, which is somewhat less than helpful =(. |
BTO & BP Join Forces - Broadband CDs
By:mark.j @ 3:32:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] BTOpenworld has joined forces with the popular petrol supplier BP to help make broadband ISP registration CDs available from 450 service stations nationwide. The unremarkable press release is as follows:
BTOPENWORLD AND BP JOIN TO DRIVE BROADBAND TO CONSUMERS
- ISP adds ADSL to retail distribution CDs, now available in all BP forecourt retail outlets -
BTopenworld has teamed up with BP to make broadband registration CDs available from 450 BP service stations nationwide. The agreement will make high speed Internet access even easier to buy and install.
From next week, the CDs will be available from BP retail sites across the UK. The deal builds on an existing, highly successful relationship between the two companies - BP is already one of BTopenworld's best distribution channels for narrowband access.
The CDs will contain all the software and instructions needed to register for BTopenworld's Home 500 Plug & Go broadband product. Once customers have registered (and providing they meet all the criteria for receiving broadband) they will be sent the relevant hardware and a simple step-by-step guide to install the product themselves. Their broadband connection will go live 10 days after purchase.
Alison Ritchie, CEO of BTopenworld said: "This is the first in a series of announcements on companies we will be working with to drive broadband take-up. Last week we revealed a multi-million pound marketing and advertising plan to support our Plug & Go service and lower monthly broadband rental and we will be announcing details of other partners in the near future."
"Offering CDs at petrol stations has proved a great success in attracting narrowband customers," she continued. "Huge numbers of people pass through forecourts every day, and it's easy for them to pick up Internet access along with their newspaper and a sandwich. It's a strategy that works so I am confident that we will repeat this success with broadband."
BTopenworld's distribution network for its narrowband products includes 3,000 retail outlets and 12,000 affiliate sites across the UK. BP has been an affiliate partner for BTopenworld's Anytime unmetered narrowband product for nine months.
Gillian Meek, E-Services Category Manager at BP said: "Distributing the new CD means that we are now able to offer our customers a wider choice of Internet-based services with no extra complexity. The fact that BP is the first retailer to distribute this new CD is a reflection of our commitment to the customer." |
Updated Surfmore ISP Details
By:mark.j @ 3:27:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] One of our resident forum moderators, Keith, was able to get some more details from Surfmore regarding their unmetered service. In their own words:
1. We currently have a 2 hour cutoff for the Surfmore Service
2. The idle timeout is currently set to 10 minutes
3. Customer service for Surfmore is handled via a web based form and emailed to support@surfmore.co.uk
4. We use the BT FRIACO backbone
5. We are not a reseller. We lease our own ports.
6. The URL printed on the flyer is incorrect and is being addressed
7. Our target contention ratio is 20:1
8. We do not impose any limits to usage
9. Surfmore is designed to be accessed via the Surfmore Dialler installed from the CD accompanying the product
10. Yes, we support ISDN at 64Kb. Every access port is given the full 64Kb of bandwidth
The only thing that really sticks out is the 20:1 contention ratio, which is far from impressive given that most ISPs of a similar price point tend to operate between 9:1 and 15:1 at most. |
Affinity Sees Losses & Revenues Rise
By:mark.j @ 3:22:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Affinity Internet Holdings, the group helping to supply several UK ISPs with unmetered (Powergen etc.), has today seen its shares slip after the company reported increased turnover and widening losses:
Publishing its prelims for the year to December 31 Affinity said that turnover for the year was up 366 per cent to £52.8 million. Pre-tax losses increased by £4 million to £30 million.
Terry Plummer, Affinity's chairman, said that he "continues to view the future with enthusiasm and confidence" and that his operation is "now directed to growing revenues, increasing profitability [and] strict cost control".
Despite this bullish outlook Affinity's share price dipped 18.5p (6 per cent) to 282.5p by mid morning. Elsewhere, Affinity claims that its ISP business will become profitable later this year even though the number of small companies looking to run branded ISPs continues to fall.
The Register's item notes that despite the last paragraph, Affinity is compensated by the fact that established brands are still looking for ISP services. |
UK Gov Spends £30M On Broadband
By:mark.j @ 3:03:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The Governments e-Minister, Douglas Alexander, has today announced how he intends to spend the £30 Million earmarked to help improve the coverage of broadband technologies in areas currently not commercially viable (rural towns etc.):
These include: wiring up business parks in Yorkshire and Humberside with broadband links; and a trial of satellite and wireless broadband links in the east Midlands.
In a statement Douglas Alexander said: "With the help of this £30 million fund, Regional Development Agencies across the country are embarking on innovative and exciting projects that could have a real impact on the roll-out of broadband infrastructure, especially in rural areas where access is currently limited."
However, critics claims that this initiative is little more than tinkering around at the edges and fails to address the real issue of broadband availability. Currently, four out of ten people in the UK are outside the reach of a DSL-enabled exchange.
Of course it's not the first time the government has "re-announced" this initiative and the money that goes with it, yet it is the first time we've been able to see any specifics. Sadly it's unlikely to have a real impact on the rollout, more @ The Register. |
Japan Tests 4G Broadband Networks
By:mark.j @ 2:56:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] 3G has only just launched in Japan and won't truly be available in Europe until the end of this year/mid 2003, despite this the popular Japanese operator NTT DoCoMo Inc is pressing ahead with 4G tests already!:
Its experimental 4G system will test base station and mobile equipment which could be in public use by 2010.
DoCoMo says the experiment is far ahead of any research being done by rival companies. The tests will get under way within months.
Handsets using 4G technology will transmit video pictures at twice the quality of traditional TV and will download data 260 times faster than DoCoMo's existing 3G mobile service.
It's hard for us to get excited about the Ananova item because most people haven't even seen enough good 2.5G (GPRS) handset options on the market yet, let alone 3G. |
Quick ISP Review Site Update
By:mark.j @ 10:20:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] | Just a brief note to say that two new unmetered ISP forums for Click0808 and Surfmore have been added. We also placed a new one under General ISP Discussion for Firewalls, Security & Anti-Virus Discussion as requested by some readers. |
Thedotcomplete/service Hit By Problems
By:mark.j @ 9:34:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Thedotcomplete, otherwise known as Thedotservice.net (among other names), has today issued a service update explaining their latest batch of problems:
THEDOTCOMPLETE.NET SERVICE UPDTE
We are currently experiecing major network problems which are the result of an upgrade which took place on saturday. All users are asked to sit tight as we iron out the remainder of the problems with the service.
The problem will affect the following services on the network:
WENHOSTING
INTERNET ACCES THROUGH DIAL-UP
ADSL
STREAMING
In true Thedotcomplete style, no details are given about the problem and no ETA as to when they could be fixed. Unfortunately this provider doesn't have the most stable of histories and still can't seem to use a word processor before sending out updates =). |
LogicSurf ISP Discontinue 0845
By:mark.j @ 9:27:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] UPDATE: Yes the 0845 Dialup is to close in a few weeks, they corrected the update to us.
It's been awhile since we heard anything from LogicSurf, which is a standard 0845 (Local Call Rate offering ISP. Unfortunately their latest press release contains echoes of a tone that we're becoming increasingly familiar with:
Due to the unsuccessful year, the progress of logicsurf's 0845 service has slowly grinded to a halt, as more and more unmetered isp's hit the market. Therefore after meeting upon meeting with the management staff we have chosen to discontinue with logicsurf 0845.
We notice that more and more people want broadband in some way either DSL, Cable or Satellite and with only BT and NTL as the main sources we have chosen to look in that direction. As this is only an idea we are unsure of any details at the moment.
So what now???
Our servers will stay open for use and you will not be effected. The only difference is that there will be no 0845 tech support either by phone or by email.
Thanks for a good year
Steve Hubbard
Managing Director
Logicsurf Internet
We're somewhat confused by how the update states a discontinuation of the 0845 dialup at the top and then completely contradicts that at the bottom.
Perhaps they’re just referring to technical support? However the language doesn’t serve to make either very clear. |
NTLs 256kbps Upstream Trial - Update
By:mark.j @ 9:12:AM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] DigitalSpy is reporting that ntl:home's special 256Kbps broadband cable modem upstream tests (normally 128Kbps) will take place today:
The modifications will be made to the Melton UBR (not-cam2b-ubr2) between 1am and 5am. Approximately 100 customers are on the "silver" tier of service, which currently offers a 512kbps downstream and 128kbps upstream service. However, as we first reported last week, the cable operator plans to conduct viability tests of offering all "silver" tier customers a 256kbps upstream - a so-called "silver plus" tier of service.
No doubt we'll be hearing more on this very soon. |
News - March 18,2002
New Pre-Paid Unmetered ISP - Surfmore
By:mark.j @ 4:08:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] The latest unmetered dialup ISP to appear comes in the form of a Pre-Paid style service from Surfmore, as uncovered by one of our forum moderators (Keith) - he states:
Surfmore is part of the more chain of newsagents which includes more, Mc Coll's, Martin's and Forbuoys. The service is basically paid for with a topup card that you pick up with your cd from your local shop. Upon loading the cd you then need to top-up the prepay card at your local shop each month if you wish to access the service.
Set at £14.99 which is the average for unmetered ISP's you do not require a credit or debit card and the service will be disconnected at the end of the month unless you top-up again. Hence there’s no contract and it’s ideal for those who do not like using cards on the Internet and also those who don't have one.
The website is very basic, although all the information required is on the cd and flyer. They also offer a money back guarantee, although the url which is given for info on this has been printed incorrectly on the flyer.
Taken from their website, this is the info available:
The Surfmore Service
The Surfmore Product is an un-metered Internet access product.
The product retails for £14.99 and can be purchased from any McCalls, More, Martins or Forbuoys store in the UK.
A web based email service is also provided free of charge. This is limited to 3 mail IDs per account.
This service will only work from BT connected telephone lines and supports modem speeds up to 56kb/s.
Also worth noting is they currently have a special offer:
Recharge your Surfmore card for your second month and receive your third month absolutely free
Note that we say this ISP is new, however that’s only because ‘we’ haven’t heard of it before and it may have been around for awhile. |
Click0808 Unmetered ISP Update
By:mark.j @ 3:42:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] Some good news, we finally got a reply from the unmetered ISP Click0808 (as reported on Sunday), although it doesn't really help to solve the bigger concerns:
We do not provide web space but we do give out 5mb worth of web mail space.
Once the customer signup for our service, they will receive a confirmation order with username & password. Also, they would receive our contact telephone number and our address.
At this moment we do not have cut-off time and our customer can access anything they like. I hope this will answer your questions.
The address was also included in the footer of the E-Mail and as many will have already realised from a check-up of the company, they're based in LEBANON =):
Netcom Intel Limited
702, Block B
Gefinor Centre
Clemenceau Street,
Hamra, Beirut
LEBANON
We'll now try to find out how they can operate a UK unmetered ISP from Beirut, which could make them a reseller for another company, but who?
We’d love to know of any ISP able offer near limitless 24/7 unmetered access in the UK for such a low price without going tits-up over the long-term. Not to mention how difficult it must be to deal with local UK support issues, especially when lacking a phone number. |
Clamping Down On Work Surfers
By:mark.j @ 3:29:PM - News Comments - SendNews [HERE] / PrintNews [HERE] If you're one of the many who occasionally manages to sneak in some online shopping, browsing or personal emails while at work, then beware, for it may not last much longer.
Businesses are increasingly classifying employee email and Internet privileges as potential security hazards, distractions or worse, costly legal dangers in the making.
Such companies are considering dramatically curtailing, or even completely abolishing, the freedom employees have grown increasingly reliant over the past few years.
The days of sneaking in some online shopping on company time, mass-emailing your pals a Flash-powered shoot-'em-up game or even downloading screensavers could be a thing of the past.
"It is drastic and painful," Raimund Genes, European president of anti-virus software manufacturer Trend Micro, said. "But I think it is necessary for the future."
A healthy dose of IT prevention can eradicate debilitating email-borne worms and limit the likeliness of employees using their speedy desktop Net connection to download copyright-protected tunes, thus triggering a lawsuit.
Dear of dear.., downloading music files, surfing the Internet and sending personal E-Mails while at work, now who would do such a thing =)? [Many hands rise] |
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