Government Coalition = Stunted Broadband Growth?:
Virgin Media has joined together with designer Alice Davies to create a laptop which will show the possibilities now available to customers. The laptop comes with built in Bluetooth and WiFi, plus a Virgin Mobile broadband service with an integrated webcam. The laptop can also be recharged wirelessly with a desk top mounting deck.
BT is expected to outline an expansion of its ... 
Lots to say. Lots of silence.:
Research from Moneysupermarket.com has found that some internet providers are failing to provide customers with details required under Ofcom rules introduced in 2007. The rules state that providers should give customers a Migration Authorisation Code within 5 days of them opening an account with a new provider. The unique code allows customers to make the switch more easily. The research...
Lock your Broadband from Hijacking Thieves:
Virgin Media has experienced its fastest period of growth ever in the last three months, with strong demand for broadband and television services. The company have said that they added more than 38,000 cable customers since the beginning of the year and the average amount each customer was paying increased by more than 5%. Customers who opted to take up three services was up 61% and thos...
TalkTalk Talks the Talk whilst Orange turns yellow:
TalkTalk has announced it will be switching its customers from BT to its own fibre optic infrastructure, however it has not given a timetable of when this might happen. TalkTalk has added 1700 phone exchanges across the UK which means that 80% of houses in the UK should be able to have coverage. They say they will be able to increase this to 90% in the next year. This makes them the only...
BT letting you down? Start your own Broadband Company!:
The residents of Lyddington have raised more £37,000 to offer super fast broadband to 200 homes after BT said it would not be able to give them the service. The village have named their service Rutland Telecom and will offer speeds up to 40Mbps. The villages joined together with a local ICT firm which was reselling BT's broadband. BT have said they were delighted to help Rutland Te...
Underachieving British Broadband Bureaucrats:
The plan to place a 50p levy on phone users has been shelved by Labour after it failed to make it into the Finance Bill due to be released this week. This has created uncertainty about how future broadband access will be funded. The levy was designed to give £150m per year to support the roll out of broadband to areas where the private sector was failing to provide the service. Some expe...
UK not ready for totally online government services whilst broadband coverage is so poor:
Tunbridge Wells and Guildford are to be two of the towns which will benefit from a new roll out of superfast broadband by BT. The company have announced plans to extend the service to another 303 exchanges between Autumn 2010 and Summer 2011. It is all part of their plan to make the super fast broadband available to at least 40% of UK homes by 2012. The BT network is also being made avai...
Fast broadband speeds possible, just not available:
Ofcom has demanded that BT offer other providers access to its fibre network, underground ducts and telegraph poles in an attempt to speed up the introduction of superfast broadband. Ofcom have said they will not influence BT regarding how much they charge for this access and BT have pointed out that they already offer this type of access, although the Ofcom report does give clarity on t...
Businesses would move to get better broadband:
Virgin media has announced their introduction of a new set top box for those wanting HD. The V HD Box will be available to new or current customers for a one off payment of £49 plus an installation charge. The box is claimed to be more energy efficient than previous models and repairs will be undertaken by Virgin, as they retain ownership of the box. Cindy Rose form Virgin has said...
Should your ISP be the one policing the internet?:
Virgin Media, Talk Talk and BT have joined forces with a number of other broadband providers to write an open letter to the Financial Times stating their opposition to an amendment to the government's digital economy bill. The amendment would see providers having to block websites which feature material which infringes copyright. They say that this move would impact on freedom of speech ...
Internet-less Country Bumpkins Social Outcasts?:
The Chair of the Commission for Rural Communities has found that the number one reason why young people are leaving rural areas is the lack of access to the internet. Stuart Burgess said in a report to the Government that almost 60% of urban areas have a cable based broadband service, while just 1.5% of villages and hamlets have the same. He believes that rural children are experienci...
200Mbps - 1Gbps? I can't even get 1Mbps!:
A report from the Business, Innovation and Skills committee, which is made up of MP's from all political parties has suggested that the 50p tax on fixed line telecommunications is unfair. The group, which includes Labour MP's has said that it will levy a disproportionate cost on those who will not benefit from any future improvements to broadband. The levy has been named The Next Generat...
Faster Broadband Speeds ... so we can check Facebook Quicker?:
>> Ericsson mobile have said they have successfully reached mobile broadband speeds of 1Gb, during a speech at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona. The comments follow on from a successful trial of a 50Gb wireless connection by O2 at the conference. Hans Vestberg of Ericsson commented that the company's passion for innovation has allowed them to reach these milestones.
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Google Builds Fibre Optics whilst BT Keeps Dial-Up:
>> A study of 3500 people across Europe conducted by Motorola has found that 87% share content such as videos, images and sound clips with their friends and families via their mobile. They also discovered that 52% of people stream videos and 34% watch TV online using their mobile, laptop or network to access it. Those in Sweden were the most likely to watch TV or video online. Steve McCa...
Future of Broadband in Politician's Hands:
>> Mobile broadband provider Orange, has won the top spot in a survey conducted by YouGov. They were named best mobile broadband provider in categories such as reliability, customer service, upload speeds and easy usability. They have maintained their position as number one for two years running. The survey asked the opinions of 2037 adults in the UK and the providers were evaluated on 1...
BT and Virgin go head to head in fibre optic sales:
>> Research by Eurostat has shown that 93% of companies in the EU which have 10 or more employees have access to the internet and 82% specifically use broadband connections. These businesses can also boast that 12% of their business is through online retail channels. In the UK alone, 15% of turnover has been generated from e-commerce and 85% of businesses have a broadband connection.
IE and O2 tops for users, Virgin flops in to trouble:
>> Recent reports have indicated that broadband users prefer Internet Explorer to other operating systems. This is despite the emergence of Apple Safari and Google Chrome. Currently, Internet Explorer has 63% of the market, Firefox has 24% and Google Chrome and Apple Safari both have around 4.5%. Experts have suggested that Internet Explorer may come under threat as more people st...
Broadband News Update: 18.01.10:
>> The Country Land and Business Association has recently commented that the expected Government investment of £1bn into next generation broadband, while welcome, does not go far enough for them. William Worsley, the CLA president, stated that the expected 10% of the country which will not be covered will inevitably be rural areas and the government needs to consider ways of fundin...
Broadband News Update: 07.01.10:
>> A study by comparison site Gocompare.com has found that only 14% of people in the UK have changed their broadband provider in the last year. This is despite the fact that switching providers is often beneficial as some deals are only offered to new customers. Lee Griffin of Gocompare commented that millions of customers could be paying more than necessary. Conversley, recent statistic...
Broadband News Update: 24.12.09:
>> Broadbandchoices.co.uk has found that 32% of broadband users are at risk of exceeding their download limit this Christmas, due to their intention of watching TV online. The website warns that users should check the small print of their broadband contract to see what the limits are. Some ISP's will impose a penalty or restrict download speeds if users exceed their monthly limit. They r...
Broadband News Update: 18.12.09:
>> Talk Talk is the latest company to sign up to Project Canvas in partnership with the BBC, BT, ITV, Channel 4 and Five. Project Canvas is designed to adopt common standards on the broadband delivery of free-to-air television. There are currently no common standards in place for this type of technology, something which is important for the manufacturers of compatible infrastructure. Tal...
Broadband News Update: 11.12.09:
>> Plusnet is warning its customers that the use of Christmas tree lights could affect broadband connectivity over the festive period. The lights, particularly those that flash, can cause intermittent faults by creating interference. The suggestion is to keep lights away from telephone cables and if problems occur, to switch off the lights before calling their helplines.
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Broadband News Update: 04.12.09:
>>>> Research from moneysupermarket.com has found that 59% of people in the UK would feel cut off from the world if they didn't have access to a home phone or broadband. 30% said they would contact people less without this type of technology. The research also showed that people on average spend 68 hours online each month. Moneysupermarket.com suggests that if people are using the...
Broadband News Update: 27.11.09:
>>>> Broadband provider O2, have announced a £100m investment in their network over the next few years. They hope to improve both the capacity and the coverage of their service from the current 85% by building new base station sites and upgrading existing ones. Chief Technology Officer Derek McManus has said that customer behaviour has sparked an unprecedented demand on mobile net...
Broadband News Update: 23.11.09:
>>>> A remote rural village in Cumbria has taken matters into their own hands and installed their own 20Mbps fibre optic broadband cable link. The Alston Moor village had been told by BT it would not be viable for them to get even basic broadband service. BT did relent and eventually installed limited service in 2005. The village paid £350 per household for the fibre optic equipment and ...
Broadband News Update: 01.11.09:
>> Virgin Media has revealed that it has increased it's subscribers over the third quarter of 2009 by 39,000 new customers. They have said that demand has been at record levels and the fact that they can offer speeds of 10mbps or more due to their fibre optic broadband network has seen their customer base increase by 157% year on year. They have also secured 37,000 new digital TV subscri...
Broadband News Update: 25.10.09:
>> According to the Countryland and Business Association, rural companies and residents could miss out when it comes to fibre optic broadband access. They say it could harm competitiveness for rural businesses and they fully support BT's idea of subsidies from the Government for more isolated areas.
The CLA recently denied reports that the current broadband access fully met a...
Broadband News Update: 18.10.09:
>> Broadband analyst, Point Topic, have said that the next generation of fibre optic broadband services which go to the home will become dominant due to plans put forward by BT. Current broadband has a fast fibre optic link to street cabinets and copper cabling to the home while new services will extend the fibre optics direct into the home. BT has said it will begin it's roll-out of the...
Broadband News Update: 11.10.09:
>> Half of the Nobel Prize in physics has been awarded to the man who developed the use of fibre optic cables in broadband and networking technology. Charles Kao of Standard telecommunications in London along with the Chinese University of Hong Kong calculated how fibre optics could be used to transmit data back in 1966. The other half of the prize goes to Bell Laboratories in the US.
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Broadband News Update: 04.10.09:
>> BT has announced plans to double the reach of it's network giving 75% of UK homes and businesses access to fast broadband. Currently just 40% of the country is covered.
The governments "Digital Britain" campaign has said that everyone should have access to at least 2mbps by 2012. BT currently covers the majority of UK homes but in practise the speeds are much lower ...
Broadband News Update: 27.09.09:
>> The chief Executive of Eircom, Paul Donovan have been addressing delegates at the Telecoms and Internet Federation Conference in Dublin this week. He has said that his company is committed to investing in the future of fibre optic cabling and have put £1.1bn Euro into the area in past year. They hope to double that investment this year.
The conference brought toge...
Broadband News Update: 20.09.09:
>> A study by Gartner has revealed that a roll out of fibre optic broadband could result in a bandwidth divide with urban areas enjoying better coverage and faster speeds than rural areas. They fear that rural based businesses may be at a disadvantage to their urban counterparts.
In addition, the divide could extrapolate across countries. Governments in some countries ...
Broadband News Update: 13.09.09:
>> UK Internet Service Provider, Talk Talk which is owned by Carphone Warehouse is due to present to Ofcom and the Government, a report which shows that BT is being allowed to become one of Europes most expensive broadband providers to ISPs.
Ofcom has proposed that BT can increase prices by 22% over the next 3 years and Talk Talk have pointed out that these increases w...
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