The
All-Party Parliamentary Group on Communication (APPGC), which is chaired by John Robertson MP and Derek Wyatt MP, has launched a new investigation into Internet traffic. This will include issues of net neutrality (restricting bandwidth to specific applications, while prioritising others), child abuse image filtering and the use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) systems, such as Phorm .
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The Government's 2009 budget statement has given approval for
Digital Region, a £100 million project led by Yorkshire Forward, which will roll out next-generation broadband services to South Yorkshire. Most of the initial funding has been raised by attracting European, regional, local and private investment of over £90m.
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The UK government has given its official backing to a new Universal Service Obligation (USO), which was first proposed in Lord Carter's interim
Digital Britain review during January (
original news) and aims to make broadband speeds of at least 2Mbps available to everybody in the country by 2012. The
Budget 2009 (Adobe Reader .PDF) report is typically sparse on detail but strong on spin.
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SMC Networks has today launched a new generation of wireless ( 802.11n-draft 2.0 Wi-Fi ) broadband routers with built-in support for 3G Mobile Broadband services. The Barricade SMCWBR14-3GN comes with a USB port to connect your 3G USB modem, thus acting as a handy backup for your land-line.
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Broadband ISP Pipex ( Tiscali ) has today begun offering its business customers access to AVG's Internet Security suit. The product is available as a 1 month trial prior to purchase and defends users against viruses, spyware, worms, hackers, botnets, poisoned web pages, Trojans, spam, and other cyber threats.
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The
European Parliament has officially voted in favour of last month’s proposals to slash the cost of Mobile Broadband data roaming charges in Europe by July 2009 ('
EU Slashes mobile broadband and Data Roaming Charges') and make it more difficult for customers to be hit by
BILL SHOCKS.
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The Phorm system, which controversially works with UK broadband ISPs (e.g. BT WebWise) to monitor what websites you visit for use in targeted advertising campaigns, has denied a report that both BT and Virgin Media were seeking to distance themselves from the system.
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The European Parliament has voted (40 to 4) to keep amendment 138 (now renumbered amendment 46), which states that restrictions to the fundamental rights and freedoms of Internet users can only be put in place after a decision by judicial authorities (except when public security is threatened).
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The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has upheld a complaint against a direct mailing advert for Virgin Media and its broadband ISP service. The advert, which did reference an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) in the small print, promoted "
Unlimited downloads ... come as standard" but was challenged because restrictions to the service were not made clear.
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The
Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has leapt on recent remarks made by the governments Communications Minister, Lord Carter (author of the forthcoming
Digital Britain report), for appearing to confirm its fears that, as others enjoy superfast broadband, much of the UK countryside will languish without any form of broadband at all.
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The Carphone Warehouse ( TalkTalk , AOL UK , Opal etc. ) has released its latest trading update, which reveals that its broadband subscriber base has increased from 2.7m in Q4-2008 to 2.8m in Q1-2009 (+74,000 quarterly net adds). This brings CW back to the same figure it held in Q3-2008, following a brief decline. The group also confirmed that its UK broadband ISP division, TalkTalk , would be demerged - though they did not confirm when.
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Avanti Communications, a UK satellite broadband operator, has signed four major new supply deals with Avonline plc, Broadbandwherever, Coview Solutions and KBR IT & Networking Solutions. The total worth of the deals is believed to be in the region of at least £400,000 over the next two years.
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Fears of aggressive and unregulated Internet censorship have today been fuelled after it emerged that BT's Mobile Broadband service (based off Vodafone's network) had begun blocking the controversial
PirateBay (BitTorrent tracker) file-sharing (P2P) link site.
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The London-based
Privacy International (PI), a human rights group formed in 1990 as a watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations, has criticised the lack of legal action taken against BT and its secret 2006/2007 trials (without customer consent) of Phorm's Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) advertising system.
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UK ISP TalkTalk ( The Carphone Warehouse ) has attempted to deal another blow to Tiscali's beleaguered broadband customer base by encouraging them to switch on to its
Essentials Phone and Broadband package via the offer of a bill credit worth £50.
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BT Openzone has signed a new relationship with Starbucks to provide Wi-Fi Hotspot Internet access services across the groups 650 coffeehouses in the UK and Ireland. The service will begin its roll out this week and should complete by the end of the summer.
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Broadband ISP Nildram ( Tiscali ) has launched its new
Refer a Friend scheme in which existing customers can earn up to £50 for recruiting new sign-ups on to its 12 month contract packages.
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Analyst Point Topic has issued a brief summary of the UK broadband market, showcasing recent next generation broadband developments by both BT and Virgin Media. The report also highlighted how 2009, despite finishing ahead of the groups forecast, was generally a very slow period. However they predict that 2010 will see the market bounce back.
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Business ISP
Vaioni has launched a limited time only 10Mbps leased line service offering 10Mbps Internet access to any business across Manchester from £450 +vat per month. The fibre optic based Ethernet service includes a 100% SLA and a 4hr guaranteed fix on the CPE as standard.
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UK and European Internet Service Provider (ISP) organisations have welcomed yesterdays conviction of four
PirateBay website founders (
here) as a victory for the rule of law. The four were found guilty in a Swedish court of assisting copyright infringement.
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