Bundled Services (TV / Broadband / Phone) are the Future:
Research by Strategy Analytics has found that two thirds of households in the UK will be signed up to bundle services for their broadband, phone and entertainment systems by 2016. Currently slightly less than half of all UK homes have two or more services from one supplier and of these most have a double play. This means that they have chosen just two services such as broadband and a... 
UK Average Broadband Speeds Up:
Broadband watchdog Ofcom has released the results of a survey which shows that the average broadband speed in the UK has increased by 10% in 2011. In May this year the speed was measured at 6.8MB which is higher than the 6.2MB it was in November of 2010. In addition they have discovered that more than half of the UK's Internet users are signed up to packages which offer speeds in exc...
Virgin Media 1.5Gb Broadband Service:
Virgin Media has carried out a test of a 1.5Gb broadband speed via cable in a London trial. This is 24 times the speed of the average broadband connection in the UK. Virgin Media already provides the fastest available speeds in the UK at 100Mb, but this trial puts them far ahead of any other provider. The trial was held near Old Street and a community of tech entrepreneurs known as T...
Broadband Customers Want Speed ... Or Else They'll Snap!:
An Ofcom study has found once again that speed is the most important issue for customers and the part of the service they are most often dissatisfied with. However they did find that when it came to satisfaction, Orange has topped the list after coming bottom in 2009. Consumers also have problems with switching their packages and bills which are higher than expected. It was also disc...
The Welsh want Better Broadband ... so they can use Facebook?:
People in Wales who are dissatisfied with their broadband speed are being asked to contact their local Assembly Member to complain. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has said that local people need to urge the Welsh Assembly to invest in broadband for Wales as it was an essential part of making sure that part of the country was not left behind. The Welsh Assembly has pledged $56 million ...
Welsh Get Broadband Grants and O2 Trialling Fibre Optic Broadband:
People in parts of Wales which are in broadband "notspots" can now apply for grants of up to £1,000 to help improve speeds. The money is available to anyone receiving less than 2Mb, previously it was offered to those on less than 512Kb. Edwina Hart, the Business, Technology and Science minister has commented that the Broadband Support Scheme is aimed at helping Welsh businesses...
Virgin Broadband Advert Claims Not Appreciated by ASA:
The Advertising Standards Authority has made it very clear that they did not appreciate a recent campaign launched by Virgin Media. The series of ads claimed that rival ISPs were failing to match their advertised speed promises. It also promoted a website which showed how the advertised rates of rivals were comparing to the speeds offered by Virgin. The advertising suggested that oth...
Wireless Broadband take-up Faster Than Fibre Optic:
A new report which looks into the 32 countries which make up the OECD has discovered that the number of people with a wireless broadband subscription had topped half a billion by the end of 2010. Fixed broadband subscription growth had slowed to just 6%, but had reached a level of 300 million. It was found that the Netherlands and Switzerland had the highest level of wireless subscri...
BT vs Virgin Fibre Optic Battle Rolls On:
Virgin Media have announced that their superfast broadband service is now available to more than four million homes in the UK. More than 100 towns now have access to the service which runs over a fibre optic network. The company also expects that the rest of its 13 million home network will have availability during next year. The service offers 100Mb connections and the router provid...
We Need Broadband - Why is the UK so Slow?:
91% of people in the UK now have their own email account and 40% of people have not sent a handwritten letter in the last six months. This is according to research from Sky who carried out a study to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first email. It was also found that 24 emails are sent every day by the average person in the UK and 71% of homes have a broadband connection. Broad...
Half of Cornwall to get Super Fast Broadband:
Half of all homes in Cornwall will have superfast broadband by next year as 50 of the 100 telephone exchanges in the area are upgraded. Most of these will be in east Cornwall. BT have joined together with the EU, Cornwall Council and the Cornwall Development Company to improve access in the area. Most of these connections will fibre-to-the-cabinet and while these only offer a maximum of ...
BT's 100Mbps Fibre Optic Broadband Service Delayed:
The launch of BT's superfast 100Mbps broadband has been delayed due to problems with the installation. The Fibre-to-the-Premises technology was expected to reach 270,000 UK homes by September of this year. However it has emerged that it take two engineers seven hours to install the service to just one home. In fact sometimes the service is taking two full days to install and 5% of homeow...
Uptake of Fibre Optic Broadband Slow:
A new report from Point Topic has indicated that the uptake of super fast broadband has not been as quick as expected. New figures suggest that providers are seeing lower levels of demand than they had hoped. Forecasts for the future have been revised from 8.8 million by 2015 to just 6.7 million. It has also been suggested by the research that the governments plans to introduce a superfa...
Are BT Winning the Superfast Broadband Battle with Virgin?:
BT Have announced a 71% rise in profits after a 4% drop in revenue was halted by more than £1 billion in cost reduction. The full year profit announcement was mostly down to the company's success with broadband. 252,000 new customers were added during the year by companies which use the BT network and 64% of those signed up with BT. In terms of the efficiency gains, most came from ...
BT Targeting Ex-Army Engineers for Fibre Optic Upgrade:
BT have been recruiting for new engineers to help deploy fibre-based networks around the country and their main targets have been ex-army personnel. So far they have employed 181 people who were previously in the forces out of 202 who were interviewed. Olivia Garfield from BT Openreach has commented that they are proud to have recruited so many ex-army personnel. She says that they deser...
Bradford 1st UK City in Top 100:
Finally a UK city has managed to make it into the top 100 list of broadband speeds in the world. Bradford has reached 99th place with an average speed of 6.2Mb according to the list released by Akamai. The State of the Internet report which is released 4 times each year showed that the country as a whole held on to 26th position with just 4.3Mb on average. The figures are in sharp contra...
Talk Talk still making the wrong headlines:
Results of a survey by Ofcom have revealed that Talk Talk is the most complained about broadband provider in the UK. The company received the most complaints for their telephony and broadband services while Virgin Media received the least. The data was based on the 450 issues which Ofcom dealt with between October 2010 and February 2011. However Ofcom do point out that the results are on...
Men do it in the Bathroom, Women in the Bedroom:
A study by Carphone Warehouse has shown that around three quarters of those questioned say that their mobile internet usage has increased in the past year. 50% of men questioned said that the often logged on while they were on the toilet while 72% of women used their mobile internet service while they were in bed. Most of these used the phone to log into social networking sites such as T...
BT Promises 20million will have 20mbps Broadband by 2011's end:
BT has announced that 20 million homes in the UK will have access to broadband speeds of 20Mbps by the end of this year. This equates to around 80% of UK homes. BT have said that an additional 30,000 lines are being upgraded each week and BT Wholesale have said that they have reached 1,000 live fibre Ethernet nodes; a figure which will increase to 1090 by the end of the year. Cameron...
Plusnet Offering Cheapest Fibre Optic Broadband on BT Line:
Plusnet is now offering the cheapest fibre based broadband for just £16.49 per month. The company is offering speeds of up to 40Mb using the BT fibre optic broadband network. Jamie Ford from Plusnet has said that 96% of those who trialled the new service have said they would recommend it to a friend. He goes on to say that the service will be of particular benefit to those who ...
Virgin 100mbps Available to 1million Homes:
Virgin Media has claimed that more than one million households in the UK now have access to their 100Mbps broadband service. This service is 16 times faster than the average speed in the UK and is the fastest currently available. The company have said that they are on track to roll out its next generation service by the middle of next year and say that half the country will be able t...
BT Promises Fibre Optic Broadband to 90% of the UK:
The new chief executive of BT Openreach Olivia Garfield has said that superfast broadband should reach 90% of the UK due to the company putting £800m towards the rollout. The government is matching this amount. Garfield said that working closely with the government to ensure the success of the rollout is a fantastic opportunity and she is determined to make fibre available to a...
BT Removes Fair Usage Policy ... We Think ...:
BT has revealed that it will remove the fair usage policies on its BT Total Broadband package and for BT Infinity customers. This will remove the limits placed on people who are irregular heavy users, but traffic management rules will still remain. BT have said that the improvements to its network have allowed them to take this step. The traffic management protocol will still be used whe...
Ofcom Ruling on Rolling Contracts and Advertised Broadband Speeds:
Ofcom is proposing a ban on rollover contracts which require the customer to opt-out if they do not wish to continue their broadband or landline contract. Usually once a contract term ends the customer is able to leave the provider giving one months notice, but more often the regulator is seeing contracts which renew at the end of the contract date and lock the customer into a further 12...
Did You Upgrade to Virgin's "Faster" 30mbps Service?:
Virgin Media customers who have taken advantage of a recent free upgrade to its 30Mb service are now questioning if it was a good move as the so-called super hub which was meant to provide the service has shown signs of not working. Those who upgraded paid a one-off connection fee of £30 to leave their 20Mb service and many chose to do so. However there are now complaints of slow a...
Virgin's Fibre Optic Broadband being picked up at High Speed:
Virgin Media has described 2010 as the best ever year for the company after posting a £3.8bn revenue figure which is 5.8% higher than the previous year. In the final quarter of the year, the revenue was an impressive £1bn, the highest figure ever achieved by the company and 6.6% higher than the previous year on year figures. The company also improved the number of subscribers...
5 More Cities to get BT's Fibre Optic Broadband:
The government has allocated £10m of the £530m of funding put aside for broadband projects to be spent in Wales. The first round of funding was announced by the Chancellor George Osborne and it seems that it will be mainly focused on North Wales. The government has a commitment to bring fast broadband to most of the UK by 2015. So far no details of how the money in Wales will...
Londoners Get Free WiFi from The Cloud:
Wi-fi provider The Cloud is now offering Londoners free wi-fi for 15 minutes everyday within the square mile. Those with netbooks, iPads, smartphones or laptops will be able to take advantage of the deal. Those who want to use more than 15 minutes can buy top-ups on a pay as you go basis. The Cloud believe that 350,000 city workers will log on each day. They base this on the success of a...
The Sky buys The Cloud:
It has been announced that Talk Talk will be cutting 580 jobs from its 4,500 employees as part of a restructure. Also, the business division now known as Opal Telecom will be re-branded as Talk Talk Business. Dido Harding from Talk Talk has commented that Talk Talk is currently three separate businesses, each with its own administration and finance departments. The point of the restructu...
Government to offer 9 million computers for £98:
New proposals from Ofcom could mean that rural broadband customers will pay up to 15% less than they currently do for their service. In an acknowledgement that in some rural areas a lack of competition has meant that prices have not been driven down, Ofcom are suggesting that prices should be up to 15% less than inflation. The rule would apply to areas where the only provider is BT Whole...
45 more Towns to get Superfast Broadband:
Virgin media has gone live with its 100Mbps fibre broadband in four locations around the UK. Heckmondwike, Farnborough, Colchester and Barry in Wales are the lucky chosen few to receive the upgrades. The service costs £35 for those who have a Virgin phone line and £45 for those without and should offer 100Mbps. It has been stated that in the future it will be capable of offering up to 40...
BT Fibre Optic Broadband Competition Announces Six Winners:
Ofcom has opened up the radio 2G spectrum to allow mobile network providers to use it for 3G. This is expected to increase the current mobile broadband coverage and allow providers to offer higher speeds. Rural areas could also see significant improvement in reception. In the past providers have only had a limited amount of 3G spectrum to use for mobile broadband functions such as video ...
1million Children Without Broadband:
A report from the E-Learning Foundation has found that more than one million children in the UK have no access to a broadband connection or a computer. Those children from the poorest households were the least likely to have these items. Those children in more affluent homes were 2.5 times more likely to have a computer they could use at home. The Foundation has vowed that every school a...
Nationwide Broadband Plans Exclude the Welsh:
A £200,000 grant is to be used to bring a wireless network to Clackmannanshire in Scotland. WiMAX technology will be used to deliver speeds of between 2 and 20Mbps. This will significantly improve broadband speeds in the area and bring broadband to areas which have not had it in the past. Eddie Carrick from the Clackmannanshire Council has said that the area will now be able to bui...
Divided Future:
Research by the Communications Consumer Panel has found that low income households and those who are older, find that finding a broadband service which suits them is confusing due to the amount of information available to them. It seems that more vulnerable members of society are signing up to packages which are unsuitable for them. Regulations to inform customers about the services avai...
Government Announce Britain's Superfast Broadband Future:
An Ofcom study released this week has shown that 73% of people now have a high speed internet connection at home, but older users are driving further demand. 29% of those over the age of 75 are now using broadband. Of those who have a computer, 50% of over 75's admit that they regularly have problems with their computer or mobile phone. The demand for high speed internet has increased by...
UK Ranked 24th for Broadband Value:
The International Communications Market report from Ofcom has revealed that just 0.2% of UK households had a super-fast broadband connection by the end of 2009. This compares with 34% of Japanese households and 7% of US homes. Ofcom has suggested that people are put off by the extra costs associated with faster speeds and and that their needs are met by slower speeds. Access is also an i...
iPad2 to make 1st iPad more Accessible on Mobile Networks:
Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown that just 26% of those on the lowest incomes have Internet access, while 96% of those on the highest incomes do. 40% of those questioned said that the reason they don't have Internet access at home is because they don't need it and and one fifth said that they don't know how to use it. Of those who do have Internet access,...
Have you Voted for Fibre Optic Broadband in your Area?:
Virgin Media has suggested that other providers are using misleading broadband advertising and are offering speeds they cannot guarantee. The company is urging consumers to join a campaign for honesty in broadband marketing. Stopthebroadbandcon.org allows consumers to test their broadband speed and compare it with the speed being advertised by the provider. A petition can then be signed ...
4000 New Subscribers a Week for BT's Infinity Fibre Optic Broadband:
A recent survey by protectyourbubble.co.uk has discovered that 88% of the 3000 people questioned checked their phone every morning and it was part of their routine. 57% said that checking their emails, texts and Facebook updates were most important to them at the start of the day. 60% even check their phone before they get out of bed in the morning. Most people said that they were never ...
Fibre Optic Broadband not as appealing as better Dongles?:
A study conducted by Nokia in Germany, France, Spain and the UK has shown that 58% of respondents would like access to high speed broadband via a dongle and one third of these would pay extra to do so. Other areas which customers saw as needing attention were coverage, data speeds and general quality. Beppe Donagemma from Nokia has commented that improvements to the quality of the servic...
Virgin Push their 100mbps Service:
Virgin Media pulled out all the stops in promoting their 100Mbps broadband service this week. They have sent out a fleet of supercars to roam the streets of London which will be available for members of the public to use as taxis for the day on Thursday. The cars will be able to be hailed free of charge. Jon James from Virgin Media has said that the company wanted to do something fun to ...
BBC You will spend £530million on broadband projects:
The Spending Review announced by the Chancellor this week has revealed that the BBC will be contributing £530 million over the next four years towards broadband projects around the country. £300 million of this will come from the licence fee, while the rest has been set aside from the digital switch-over. It is thought that they money will be best spent in areas such as trial...
Fibre Optic Broadband is Slow to Appear:
BE have announced that it will be increasing the download speeds of its Value package from 8Mbps to 12Mbps; but only for those with bundled home phone and broadband packages. Those who already have the Value package will need to resubscribe to take advantage of the new download speeds. The deal will cost £13.79 per month on a 12 month contract and includes a free wireless modem. BE...
Who's the best provider? Does it matter?:
Ofcom has announced a series of measures designed to introduce more competition into the broadband market in an attempt to offer consumers more options and improve the roll out of super fast broadband. The review has come up with two new types of access to networks: Virtual Unbundled Local Access (VULA) and Physical Infrastructure Access (PIA). VULA will allow competitors to access new B...
Businesses across the UK suffer ... except Cornwall:
Cornwall is due to get super fast broadband ahead of many other parts of the country. It has been announced that 80%-90% of homes and businesses in the area will be connected to speeds of up to 100Mbps, while the rest will have access to broadband via satellite or wireless connections. The project will be the largest investment in rural broadband yet undertaken and includes an investment...
YouView ... YouTube ... You What?:
The European Commission have announced a new digital agenda to offer ultra fast broadband across Europe. The targets include ensuring that all European citizens have basic broadband access by 2013 and at least 30Mbps by 2020. It is also expected that 50% of Europeans will have 100Mbps services in the next ten years. The new guidelines have also looked into ways of encouraging public and ...
Pidgeons vs Broadband and GPs via Webcams:
A pigeon is to be pitted against broadband to see which one can deliver a 5 minute download video more quickly. The event will take place this week and is designed to show that broadband in some areas is still not fit for purpose. It is expected that the pigeon which will be released from a farm in Yorkshire will win the race to Skegness; a trip of 120km. The 300MB broadband file will ta...
Don't cut back on Broadband, just speed:
Research by the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank has discovered that most people would prefer to cut back on other items before they give up their broadband connection, despite the difficult economic times. In fact 93% considered broadband to be an essential item when it comes to household finances. Steve Fletcher from the bank has said that broadband appears to have become a priority and t...
Broadband calls require good broadband:
BT has had to pull one if its recent ads for being misleading. One of the Adam and Jane campaign advertisements which featured the comment "BT is rolling out up to 20 meg speeds ... consistently faster broadband" received 17 complaints and the Advertising Standards Authority said that they had not seen sufficient evidence to support the claim. BT said that the claims made in the ad were ...
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