Topic: Freedom2Surf

Freedom2Surf has signed an agreement to offer its subscribers internet TV services (IPTV).

The agreement is with Aggregator who provide the platform for both set-top boxes and PCs and promises on-demand niche content offerings such as Russian language programmes. Further services will be launched in the coming months targeted at a range of special interests.

Aggregator will enable its customers to watch programmes on demand and also on selected content automatically download content off-peak to allow later viewing.

When is Unlimited not unlimited? According to ISP Freedom2Surf when it's 25GB a week.

Some heavy users on their Unlimited connections have been told that they face termination of their contract if they don't reduce their usage to a maximum of 25GB a week.
It all comes under it's Acceptable Usage Policy (AUP) which although ISP's claim it's to protect other users standard of service, quite often is used to limit those using excessive bandwidth.

It's interesting that F2S have identified that BitTorrent is the culprit rather that imposing an 'all data' restriction. As download speeds get faster and more online content is available ISP's will have to look at the issue of data usage once again.
Although 100GB a month seems reasonable to us!

Freedom2Surf has launched an entry level broadband product aimed at the dial -up user.

Priced at £12.99 a month (with £49.99 activation) or £15.99 for the annual contract with free activation it hopes that dial-up customers will switch to broadband.

The Connect Start package will offer connection speeds of up to 8Mbps depending on the line conditions, but with a download limit of only 0.5GB this will only appeal to the lightest users, although extra usage can be purchased for £1.50 per GB.
One point is that as usage is not counted between 1am and 6am, nocturnal users could see this as a major advantage!

ISPreview have reported that Freedom2Surf have gone live with it's 8Mbps ADSL service following trials with BT last month.
This will initially be available in 53 exchanges, but reports that it hopes to be available in 5,300 exchanges by 31st March 2006 seem a little optimistic at the least.

F2S customers can migrate with a one off fee of £15 while new customers can get the service for £14.99. The bad news is that it also reports than many F2S customers are unhappy of the service they are receiving, where this is solely a F2S problem or related to the ADSLmax product remains to be see.

Freedom2Surf has been selected by BT to participate in forthcoming trials in BT's IPstream Max, which will see if speeds of nearly 8Mbps over 'some' ADSL lines.

Existing F2S customers in 25 exchanges will be invited to take part in the trials, which will initially be around Cornwall, Greater London, Northern Ireland, South Glamorgan and Strathclyde areas, although the number of exchanges in the trial will rise to 53.

With speeds of 8Mbps commonly now being delivered by LLU providers BT better get it's skates on to avoid being left behind in the race for faster speeds and high bandwidth applications.

ISP Freedom2Surf has been sold to rival Pipex in a deal worth £10 million.

It will add the ISP's 40,000 customers to it's consumer base giving it a total of 250,000, making it easier to go down the LLU route which it announced in July. It has said that it will mean that it can install it's equipment further fourty exchanges in addition to the previously mentioned sixty.

Freedom2Surf  (F2S) has announced the immediate launch of an 8Mbps broadband connection with the possibility of increasing to 24Mbps in the future. This is due to a deal between F2S and EasyNet who provide the local loop (LLU) network unbundled and announced their plans for faster speeds in April.

Initially the service will only be available at 14 exchanges with this increasing to over 200 by the end of next month (July). Current users of F2S can upgrade for a one-off payment of £15 or new customers will have to pay the £49.99 installation fee, unless they sign for the yearly contract.

Prices will start at £14.99 per month depending of the amount of data transferred during the month, with a 100GB a month data transfer only costing £24.99.

One interesting point is that the upload speed for 8Mbps connections has been increased from the usual 256Kbps to 768Kbps, this will mean uploading data, such as sending emails, will also have a speed boost!

All the details are on the F2S website if you are at one of the lucky exchanges.

As users who have migrated between two IPStream ISP's know, it can be a process fraught with problems, but those wishing to move from a DataStream ISP such as Tiscali or Virgin have not had this option.

Previously the only way to move from a DataStream ISP was to 'cease-provide' which results in a minimum of ten days with no ADSL, and sometimes much longer!

Freedom2surf have announced that they are taking part, and they seem to only ISP doing so, in new trials to allow DataStream users to migrate to one of it's packages, also it has extended the free migration offer available to new customers.

To take part punters only need to obtain a MAC code from their current ISP, which therein lies another problem, as some ISP's are not willing to freely provide them.

Freedom2Surf has come up with a seasonal gift for someone, a 2Mbps connection for £14.99!

It's Freedom2surf Lightening Connect Lite package has been extended to include the faster connection, which until now was only available on speeds up to 1Mbps. The catch is that there is only 1GB of data transfer per month, although additional allowance can be bought for £2.99 per GB. Another option is the 'non lite' package which comes with 5GB as standard, although this costs £19.99 per month.
Although if you are a night surfer, you won't pay for any bandwidth between 1am and 6am, which is an interesting idea. As is the fact that a 512Kbps connection costs the same as 1Mbps or 2Mbps, why anyone would choose for the lower speed is not sure!!

There is a £49.99 activation charge, but the package includes 50MB of webspace and 20 email addresses.

Freedom2Surf has has unveiled gift vouchers that can be redeemed for one of its broadband packages.
These are available in a  choice of three, six, nine or twelve vouchers, which can be redeemed against Freedom2Surf Connect and Connect Lite, which are both 1Mbps connections, and Pure IP Unlimited, which is a standard connection of 512Kbps.

The full details will be unveiled later this week, but an example is a 3-month voucher for Connect Lite which cost £95.00, this includes the activation fee and the £14.99 monthly fee for the three months..

If anyone wants to send a voucher to bug, then just get in touch!!

ISP Freedom2surf have launched a free VoIP service for use over a broadband service - Freedom2Surf Babble.

According to the Press Release, 'Babble' is to be available to 'anyone with a PC and broadband connection', with the service seemingly integrated into Freedom2surf's core network - thus enabling the ISP to do all this for free. Calls are made using either Microsoft Windows Messenger or a VoIP telephone.

More info to appear on the Freedom2surf website soon.

Freedom2Surf have announced a price reduction on their 1Mb ADSL service. A staggeringly low £14.99 per month. And its not some special, never to be repeated, once in a lifetime offer either.

OK - so the service is capped at 1GB per month, but as the ISP is keen to point out, a 1GB allowance is sufficient for "200 MP3 music tracks, 650 short videos or 100 large software programmes". For those who feel the need for speed but would welcome a bit more inclusive traffic, Freedom2Surf also offer the same 1Mb download rate, but including 5GB of transfer allowance costing £19.99 (all prices include VAT). In both cases, as always, the upload speed remains at 256k.

It should be pointed out that Freedom2Surf do things a little differently to other capped solutions by providers (as if there wasnt enough variations of the concept already). Between the hours of 1am and 6am, any download will not be counted towards the monthly allowance, freeing up those costly bits and bytes for the more important tasks that need to be done during the day.

Freedom2Surf has launched of a new 512Kbps broadband ADSL service costing £17.99 per month (inc VAT).

Freedom2Surf Connect offers download speeds up to 512Kbps, 20 email addresses and 50Mb of web space.

Like the new BT Basic service, recently launched, Freedom2Surf Connect imposes a 1Gb download limit on users, which is becoming standard for low cost ADSL connections.

However, Freedom2Surf is also offering an additional service, FamilyConnect, which is targeted at family users and households that have a need for greater usage allowance for downloading, which costs £19.99 per month and has a 2Gb allowance.

Subscribers to both new services can check their level of data usage through the members area on the Freedom3Surf website. They also have the option of purchasing an extra 1Gb traffic allowance for £2.99 per month.

The details as usual are available from the Freedom2Surf website