The new Managing Director (MD) of popular ISP Be Broadband UK, Chris Stening, has given an interesting interview to the Be Usergroup community in which he discusses a number of topics, such as the future adoption of superfast 40Mbps FTTC broadband packages, the lack of IPv6 support and improvements to the IWF filter that will stop legitimate websites being blocked by accident.

On the subject of launching an FTTC service, which many customers would like to see, Stening admitted that it was "really hard to make it work" with their current model of 'unlimited' packages. He added that developing a "competitive price point" on the currently available BTWholesale service was proving to be quite a challenge, especially given the lack of a cheaper "LLU equivalent [FTTC] service" (well, don't forget VULA).

At present BE is still trying to figure out how much it will all cost, although Stening confirmed that he was "getting closer to being able to provide an update". Meanwhile the issue of IPv6 support, which until now BE has been somewhat cagey about, also cropped up with word of a trial emerging at some point towards the end of this year.


Stening also touched on the often tedious issue of website blocking via the Internet Watch Foundation's (IWF) filter list of child sexual abuse sites. Despite good intentions it's know that ISP implementations of this list have suffered many problems that can often lead to legitimate websites being blocked. The good news is that this could soon be resolved.

BE's MD confirmed that the ISP expects to launch a new method later this year ("Q2/Q3"), which should resolve some of the old problems and hopefully lead to content blocks that don't inadvertently end up restricting access to legitimate content.