Topic: BT

BT has been told that it will not be forced into investing in a fibre infrastructure to existing homes.

Although the government will not force BT's hand in the matter it still believes that fibre is important for future of the UK economy.

While this won't make much difference to new developments such as Ebbsfleet it may make a difference to existing houses, which BT say doesn't warrant the significant investment needed without some guarantee of potential returns.

BT customers will soon be able to access BT Vision services via an Xbox 360, as part of a joint venture with Microsoft.

As well as access to BT Vision’s standard, free service of Freeview channels the new deal will allow any BT Vision customer with an Xbox 360 to ablo be able to watch content, as well as using the Xbox Live social network, send text and voice messages and shop on the Xbox Live market place.

Existing Xbox 360 owners will be able to access the service after a simple registration to the service and allowing a simple firmware upgrade as the BT Vision service is based on the Microsoft Mediaroom IPTV platform.

BT must be hoping that this will bring more customers to it's BT Vision platform, since launching in late 2006 it has only attracted around 100,000 users despite a large advertising campaign, well short of the original target of two to three million customers.

BT will come under renewed pressure from the Government later to commit to an upgrade of the broadband network to fibre that could cost up to £15bn.

Stephen Timms, the competitiveness minister, has invited BT along with other operators including Virgin Media, Cable & Wireless, Carphone Warehouse and Sky summit to discuss the future of broadband in the UK. Mr Timms doesn't want the UK to fall behind such countries as Japan, Korea and France who have invested heavily in providing high speed fibre networks which put Britain's aging copper network to shame.

BT are planning high-level delegation to the event with chief executive Ben Verwaayen being joined by  Ian Livingstone, who runs the customer-facing division, and Steve Robertson, the head of the wholesale arm. They will argue that thay are currently spending £10bn to update Britain's network and adding fibre into the equation would add an extra £15bn to provide fibre to the door or £7bn to provide fibre to the cabinet.

They want industry regulator, Ofcom,to set the price which people will pay for these high speed services so it will be able to get a minimum value return on the substantial investment. Although this may not be popular with other telcos such are Virgin who already own a substantial fibre network, and also new players such as Tiscali and the Carphone Warehouse who maybe allowed to lay their own fibre to BT's exchanges.

BT's Homehub which hackers found a critical security hole in which would have allowed full control of the router has been fixed.

BT has updated the latest firmware for the router and has removed Remote Assistance, which gave support staff admin rights to investigate problems in the router. Although the feature has been disabled BT said that it has other ways of accessing the and the feature will still appear on the routers menu, but will return an error if clicked.

This is good news for the two million plus Homehub users as BT has previously been criticized for not responding to a previous vulnerability reported in another of its routers last year.

The update is automatic to users but a report on the BT site gives the details.

The chief executive in charge of BT's 21st century network (21CN) has decided to call it a day after only six months.

Andy Green took responsibility for 21CN when the has made chief executive of group strategy and operations after a reshuffle in April, and is the second senior 21CN manager to resign.
In June Paul Reynolds who was chief executive of BT's wholesale also decided to leave the company, but BT was quick to respond saying that there was no connection between the moves and that it wasn't related to 21CN  "Andy's departure is in no way related to 21CN," "Andy felt he had completed the tasks put in front of him and the opportunity was too good to turn down."

Green will not be replaced with his job being divided between two of his staff, the 21CN programme will now be fronted by Al-Noor Ramji, chief executive of BT Design, and Roel Louwhoff, chief executive of BT Operate, who will report directly to group chief executive Ben Verwaayen.

Hacking group Gnucitizen have claimed that they have discovered a vulnerability in the Thomson Speedtouch 7G router, which is bad news for BT HomeHub users.

The HomeHub is BT's standard router and is based on the Speedtouch 7G and it's estimated that there three million in the UK. BT also plan to allow the hub to be opened up to passing Wi-Fi users of FON in a shared community, so this is of concern to many users if this exploit is true.

According to the group they have three demo exploits which will allow anyone to connect to the router via the internet, steal WEP/WPA keys and eavesdrop on VoIP conversations.
All that is required is that a user visits a carefully crafted webpage which then alerts the group to the location of the router.

The group have posted a video of the process, but it is a little short of details so verifying if this is an actual problem for HomeHub users becomes a little tricky. They claim to have revealed the details to BT and Thomson, but have had no response.

Hopefully if there is a problem BT can fix the issue when it upgrades the firmware to allow FON connections to be made from the router.

Wi-Fi operator FON and BT have tied up to create "a people's network of Wi-Fi".

FON have been trying to get broadband users to share their Wi-Fi connections for quite a while now, but one of it's greatest problems is than many ISP's terms and conditions have tended to prohibit sharing of broadband connections.
But BT seem to have embraced the idea with a scheme to get BT Total Broadband customers to open up a secure channel on their wireless router, and in return users will be able to use FON's network of wireless hotspots, as well as the wireless networks of other BT Total Broadband customers for free.

What this effectively does for BT is to extend it's Openzone Wi-Fi network across a potential three million BT Home Hubs. It was announced that there will be 500,000 members of the community at launch, whose wireless networks will be available to use for all community members, as well as 190,000 FON Wi-Fi hotspots around the country.

While this does appear to be a good, a customer on Option 2 of the BT Broadband packages only has 8GB of download allowance per month and while customers living in rural areas probably won't be affected, those in busy public places could see their monthly usage shoot up, and it's unsure if BT would be sympathetic to claims that "it wasn't me it was the shared Wi-Fi."

BT has hinted that it could bring fibre to households and businesses to replace the antiquated copper and aluminium lines.

It's retail chief Ian Livingstone said that the telco "remains very interested in further expanding the speed of access for customers, whether that be through faster copper, fibre to the home, [or] fibre to the cabinet". Originally BT's stance was to distance itself from investing huge sums of money on the project, but recently it seems to have come to realise that it's not a question of if they will, but rather when.

This maybe due to pressures from within government, ahead of the forthcoming Broadband summit later this year, which will discuss the the direction the UK will take to avoid being left behind in the broadband race, and to address if there was a case for public sector investment in the new infastructure.

BT Retail has become the only UK ISP to hit the 4 million customer milestone, and the a staggering increase of 2,000 a day

Over the past five years BT's broadband customer base has been growing at a rate of one customer every 40 seconds, growing from 172,000 back in June 2002.
While this growth has been in individual new customers the telco's purchases have helped along the way, for example it's purchase of PlusNet netted it an extra 190,000 customers overnight.

Subscribers to BT Vision, it's video-on-demand service, will be able to see a range of live and near-live Premier League games.

For a £4 monthly subscription or a £1.99 per match charge customers will be able to see highlights and full coverage from 10pm on the day of the match. Alternatively paying £12 a month will allow you to access Setanta Sports' live games, which will include 46 Barclays Premier League and 60 Scottish Premier League matches.

BT also claims that its customers will have access to more matches this season than customers of any other service as it also includes 125 Coca-Cola League and Carling Cup games.

BT is continuing to build it's customer base by purchasing ISPs, and the Brightview group looks set to be nex.

Brightview is a group of ISPs including Madasafish, Global Internet and Waitrose and was established back in 2001, it currently has 62,000 customers on it's services.
The deal is thought to be worth approximately £15.8m in cash and is still subject to the acceptance of the Brightview sharholders, although  BT has assured them, and customers, that the high quality services they have come to expect will be maintained.

If you are a BT customer you can save money off your broadband and phone bill, but only if you have a BT credit card.

The card which is being issued by MBNA offers zero per cent on balance transfers for 12 months, zero per cent on purchases for the first three months, and a typical rate of 16.9 per cent APR thereafter.
The savings will be automatically taken off customers bill without them having to save vouchers or claim points, each card holder can save up to £75 a month.. For the first £250 of spend on the card each month, customers will earn one pence for every two pounds of purchases, over £250 and this rises to one penny per pound spent.

BT Broadband are giving it's customers the chance of £500 worth of vouchers to spend at various online stores.

The offers, ranging from holidays to choccies are meant for BT Broadband customers, but as customers only need a BT Internet mail address to gain access to the deals anyone with a BT PAYG dial-up account can still take advantage.

So if you fancy saving 10 percent Thorntons or £15 at John Lewis then you know what to do.....

BT is to embark on a major internal reorganisation to make it easier for the company to develop and roll out web-based services.

They have decided to form two new business units, BT Design will be responsible for designing and developing new services that can be deployed over the 21st Century Network (21CN) while BT Operate will be responsible for the testing, deployment and operation of the services themselves.

Due to this around 20,000 BT employees will be shifted about into the new units, but BT claims that there won't be any reduction in staff numbers. They also note that customer facing staff will stay the same, so from a customers perspective things will remain the same, although BT hope the changes will make it "nimbler and speedier".

BT have increased the charge it make to customers require an engineer to visit and fix a fault which isn't down to BT.

As from April 1st if  a customer requires a Special Faults Investigation (SFI) they will have to stump up £144 (+VAT) rather than the £50 (+VAT) which was previously charged.

Of note is the fact that this is only due if an engineer has to investigate equipment after the NTE, or phone socket to most of us, not to fix a fault which is before the socket which is BT's responsibility. This also is not charged if they are called out to investigate interference, or noise from devices which maybe situated near to your line.

This charge was previously made under the Abortive Visit Charge, this still applies when:-

• When a BT Engineer attends an incorrect address as provided by the Customer.mer.
• When the site for installation does not meet the criteria as defined by BT as requirements for installing the service e.g. minimum space requirements, availability of power etc.
• When a BT Engineer arrives to carry out the installation at the address provided by the Customer, but the End User no longer wants the installation completed.
• When the End User has not agreed to a maintenance visit at the appointed time as agreed between BT and the Customer.
When entry is refused to the End User address, or no access can be gained, at the appointed time, as agreed between BT and the Customer.

So customers need to be certain that they need a BT engineer to investigate a fault which maybe their own problem, or will find themselves £170 lighter.

BT has added another content provider to it's BT Vision video on demand service.

Home Box Office which makes shows like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm is to supply content to BT Vision, along with Universal who will provide access to their entire catalogue of music videos, along with music-related documentaries and live concerts. music videos.

The content will be available by subscription or pay per view from May this year, with costs likely to be between £0.79 and £1.50 per episode, with subscriptions depending on the bundle. Music documentaries will be as cheap as £0.29, with a decent concert costing up to ₤2.99.

It could be cheaper to download the episodes of popular series like The Sopranos rather than buying a box set, although the DRM issue may rear it's head.

BT looks set to have 1.5 million unbundled lines by the end of this week and plans to spend £1bn this year on "improving the access network still further".

While it might seem strange that BT are enthusiastically moving customers off of it's network, there are good reasons for doing so. The 1.5 million is a milestone in the LLU process for BT as it will allow greater commercial freedom, as price caps imposes by the regulator, Ofcom, can be relaxed. The price it charges smaller ISPs for reselling BT's IPStream connections could be reduced by up to 9 percent, making BT a far more competitive option.

Things have not all been a bed of roses, with BT repeatedly failing to reach many quality targets, although the rates are rising.

BT is playing it's cards close to it's chest and not releasing to comment on reports that it is in talks with FON, the Spanish Wi-Fi sharing network.

FON allows it's Wi-Fi home routers to be able to connect to Wi-Fi enabled phones similar to BT's existing Fusion fixed/mobile broadband and mobile package. Fusion phones can also connect to any of BT Openzone hotspots, but reportedly wants to allow connections to home users internet connection.

BT users would have to give consent for any connection to be made by the public as this is against most ISP's terms and conditions, BT included. But creating a "community" whose users make their home Wi-Fi routers available for public use is of financial interest to BT, but many users wouldn't be keep to share unless there is some reward for them.

"We are interested in broadening our Wi-Fi footprint, but it's early days and we certainly don't have a deal with FON that we can talk about at the moment." said a BT spokesperson.

After revamping it's Business broadband products BT have done the same for it's BT Total Broadband residential offerings, along with £500 worth of vouchers.

The main change is to it's flagship Option 3 product which is now being advertised with an 'unlimited usage' allowance, although it's subject to the usual fair usage policy. The other two offerings also see an increase it the amount of data customers can transfer in a month. Although both of these have a fixed allowance each month users can exceed these without any penalty, although persistent 'offenders' could be changed 30p per excess gigabyte, which by many ISP's standards is very low indeed.

Customers who sign up before 31st March will be entered into a £1000 a day prize draw which has been running for a month or so now. Also they will receive £500 of vouchers to spend at dabs.com

• BT Total Broadband Option 1: £9.95 per month for 6 months if an 18 month contract is entered into, or with a 12 month contract £12.99 for the first 3 months. Both contracts are charged at £17.99 a month after the promotional period. 5GB usage allowance. Inclusive UK calls via the BT Broadband Talk voice over broadband product. 250 free minutes per month access to BT Openzone Wi-Fi hotspots. BT Yahoo! online protection suite and BT Voyager 220V wired router. Free activation.
• BT Total Broadband Option 2: £14.99 for 6 months on an 18 month contract, or £14.99 for 3 months on the 12 month contract, reverting to £22.99 thereafter. Usage allowance of 8GB per month, inclusive Wi-Fi minutes, inclusive UK calls, wireless BT Home Hub, Norton Security package and free activation.
• BT Total Broadband Option 3: £22.99 for 6 months with an 18 month contract, or £22.99 for 3 months on a 12 month contract, reverting to £26.99 thereafter. Norton Security package, unlimited usage subject to fair usage policy, inclusive Wi-Fi minutes, inclusive UK calls, Wireless BT Home Hub, BT Hub Phone and free activation.

All of the details are on the BT Total Broadband site.

BT have announce the launch of it's Business Total Broadband services designed for business users.

As with the residential services these come in three options with varying levels of service designed for both individuals working alone and SME's. Options 2 and 3 also include Wi-Fi minutes that employees an use at 30,000 BT Openzone hotspots around the country.

Supports is from a dedicated UK-based helpdesk that is reached via a free 0800 number, and Option 3 has free access to IT Support Manager, BT's advanced telephone support service, where software and configuration problems can be remedied remotely over the internet.

One thing of note though is that the minimum contract term could be up to 2 years if businesses decide to save a few pound a month.

Business Total Broadband Option 1

• £19.99 (ex VAT)  for the first 3 months, then £21.99 (ex VAT) per month plus charge for router (£49/£79 ex. VAT).
• FREE Broadband Voice line FREE email and web space FREE anti-virus and firewall 24/7 helpdesk support

Business Total Broadband Option 2

• £26.99 (ex VAT) a month when signing up for 24 months, or £29.99 (ex VAT) per month for 12 months
• 250 FREE wireless minutes every month of the minimum term of your broadband contract
•  FREE Broadband Voice line FREE email and web space
•  FREE anti-virus and firewall 24/7 helpdesk support

Business Total Broadband Option 3

• £40.50 (ex VAT) a month when signing up for 24 months, or £45.00 (ex VAT) per month for 12 months
• FREE IT Support Manager
• 250 INCLUSIVE wireless minutes every month of the minimum term of your broadband contract
• FREE Broadband Voice line
• FREE email and web space
• FREE anti-virus and firewall
• 24/7 helpdesk support

BT seem to be doing deals with everyone these days to promote their BT Total Broadband package, and have not partnered up with Xbox Live.

Unfortunately they are not giving away a free Xbox 360 but instead a XBox 360 Wireless Adapter, which would normally cost you £59.99, to customers who sign via www.bt.com/xboxoffer. The Adapter allows you to connect your Xbox 360 wirelessly to BT Total Broadband via the BT Home Hub.

The offer is available to new BT Total Broadband customers and those who migrate from another supplier who place an order before June 30th 2007.

BT has officially launched it's BT Vision service today and also announced some of the deals it has struck to provide content.

Details of the BT Vision service have been were clarified, to get the service you will need to be signed up to BT's Total Broadband package (12 or 18 month contract), a set-top box, known as a V-Box, and a BT Home Hub.
Initially the set-top box and home hub will be provided for free if you already have or are sign up for the broadband package, but there is a connection fee of £30 and an installation fee of £60. This will give you 40 Freeview channels, 30 radio stations, and Video on Demand (VoD) content.

Some of the content will be charged on a pay to view basis, while some are in packages, such as Kids and Music, and can be obtained for by either paying singly or on a monthly subscription.
 One piece of content which will generate some interest, if the price is right, is due to a tie up with sports broadcaster Setanta, 75 percent of premiership games will be available with 46 which will be live.

BT expects to have "hundreds of thousands" connected by the end of next year and aims to have two to three million customers "in the medium term".

Customers who sign up to a BT Total Broadband package in the next two weeks could get a nice surprise.

BT are giving away £1000 in a daily draw for all new customers who sign up between today (1st December) and 15th December.
All details are on the BT Total Broadband website.

BT has announced it's hinted price cuts and also given an idea of when this will happen.

As we reported last week, BT have reached the magic million figure for unbundled lines, this mean that it needs another half a million until Ofcom will allow BT to cust the price it charges to ISP's for their broadband connections.

BT is predicting that it will have reached its target by May 2007 which will then see it's IPStream product price drop from £8.40 per line to £7.63 per month with further reductions in January 2008. Also at high density exchanges, service providers will receive a greater rebate than they do now, so that the net monthly rental price will drop from £7.30 to £6.39.

But all of this is only good news if residential customers see a reduction in their monthly bills.

BT have said that it won't not offer the next generation of faster broadband services until summer next year at the earliest, with some people having to sit it out until 2011.

ADSL2+ is being rolled out along with it's planned £10 billion 21st Century Network, 21CN, the network will now not be completed until 2011, even later that the previous delay.

BT hopes some areas will have ADSL2+ by next year with 50 percent coverage by early 2008, but this still places it way behind rivals such as Easynet who started it's ADSL2+ rollout in 2005.

BT has announced plans to end its Communicator service at the end of the year replacing it with a simpler stand alone "softphone" service instead. The Communicator service will end as of the 31st December.

BT Broadband Talk Softphone in a similar ilk to Communicator, offers either free or cheaper calls from the subscribers PC. The application will come as a separate downloadable piece of software, a touch some users may prefer as Communicator was bundled into Yahoo! Messenger

BT's new Softphone seems to have a number of positive points going for it at launch - including 100 free text messages to any UK mobile phone and free calls to other BT Softphone subscribers.

But Softphone may not save you bundles of cash, as calls Local & National UK calls are priced at 3p per minute - the same as what BT's Together Option 1 package charges - so check first if you can save money before assuming you will. The exception to this rule is if your an existing BT Total Broadband customer - in which case, Local & National calls made during the evening and at weekends are free of charge.

For other Broadband users if your desperate to use BT's Softphone service, you can setup a Pay-as-you-go account, and pay by Credit or Debit Card.

BT has said that it has unbundled 1 million of its telephone lines (LLU) to allow competitors into it's exchanges.

It also says that it's Openreach division, which was set up to help open up the network, was processing almost 30,000 unbundling requests each week, with  more than 1,000 local exchanges across the UK having unbundled lines,. This isn't bad as previously only 15,000 lines had been unbundled in the last four years!

BT is still struggling to overcome a major network outage that is affecting broadband users across the UK.

Some customers are complaining about a lack of broadband for up to two days, although BT have posted that the issue has been corrected on it's website.
The problem areas include Balfour and West Woodburn with the Manchester and Swinton areas affected previously.

The problem seems to be ongoing, but the details are sparce.

BT’s Openreach broadband delivery division is failing on quality of service according to the Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator (OTA).

Openreach was set up by BT to improve the service to rival ISP's who want to access to BT’s exchanges to deliver their own LLU broadband lines to customers.
But the Office of the Telecommunications Adjudicator, set up by communications regulator Ofcom to supervise the performance of Openreach, says that the division is failing to provide a good service to rivals.
Even though the number of lines unbundled through Openreach has now exceeded 850,000 the adjudiactor said that the number of "right first time results were lower than acceptable".

BT had promised that these matters would be addressed by September the OTA said that BT was in the process of improving, but warned that it could face legal actions if it continues to fail in the service given to rivals.

Although BT are busy announcing how much it will spend on it's 21st Century Network (21CN) it seems that it will be delayed, well according to who you talk to that is.

The £10bn project to BT's network was previously scheduled for completion by 2010, but according to it's website it will be implemented over three years starting from 2008, but unless BT is very bad at maths, this means that it will be 2011, or a year late before it's complete. Even the website shows that some parts of Northern England, Scotland, Wales and South West England will not have been migrated to the all-IP network by 2010.

The news is hardly surprising as way back in 2004 when plans were first made BT proudly announced that "mass migration of customers onto the new network will begin in 2006", right.

This news comes from it's wholesale division, but its retail outfit said it would be completed by 2009, so who who you believe?

BT have released some details of the rollout of  it's 21st Century Network (21CN) and how customers will be moved to the new network.

In November BT and other communications providers will start to install new equipment ready for the upgrade in and around the Cardiff area. Customers will not be aware of any changes as the existing BT equipment and services such as phone numbers will remain the same, also no work will be carried out on customers premises.

The actual upgrade will occur in three phases, phase one, to run from November this year until March 2007, will see the upgrade of voice services to some 10 percent of customers, phase two, from April to mid May 2007, will deliver a further 10 percent of upgraded lines.

By the end of Phase 3 in the summer of 2007, BT will have upgraded all 350,000 customer lines. these will also include  90,000 broadband and ISDN2 and ISDN30 services. Private circuit-based services or leased lines will not be initially upgraded.

After the final stage of the Cardiff upgrade, BT and other communications providers will begin an in-depth review before moving to the planned national upgrade of all remaining customers across the UK, which is some 30 million lines supported from over 5,500 telephone exchanges, which it plans to start in January 2008.
Hopefully the review process will mean that any problems will be ironed out before the nationwide rollout, although if the ADSL Max programme is anything to go by maybe not!

BT have struck a deal with Chelsea football club to provide Total Broadband to it's fans and become the clubs official internet service provider.

Chelsea supports will receive special offers and discounts on BT Total Broadband with those signing up for the service via the Chelseafc.com site will get 12 months free Chelsea TV online, a saving of £6 a month.

Be prepared for the Chelsea website to be plastered with BT banner ads and content......and the removal of BT ads from other premiership websites!

An unlucky broadband user has been charged a whopping £12,000 for a years connection by BT.

Ben Lord, from Ixworth, Suffolk should have paid BT £29.99 a month which according to our maths is £11,640 cheaper than BT's. Not surprisingly Mr Lord is not a happy chappy, especially as this is not the first time BT have cocked up, he claims he had received numerous incorrect bills from BT before the latest one.

BT has apologised and promises to look into the matter, Mr Lord on the other hand is taping up his letterbox!!

ISPreview reports that BT Openreach has reduced it's price for mass LLU  migrations.

This means that LLU companies can migrate mass users from BT Wholesale's IPstream or Datastream products for 27% less than previously, the new cost for each user will be £25.39 (ex VAT) effective from 1st July.
It has also announced a new mass migration product to allow multiple users to migrate their existing Wholesale Line Rental (phone line) onto LLU. This will allow operators who install equipment in BT exchanges to easily move customers onto that equipment and will cost £27.54 (ex VAT), a number migration is 49p (ex VAT).

It looks as if you are hoping for an upgrade to DSLMax then you may have to wait a little longer after BT has stopped mass migrations due to a software failure.

ISP's were just given 20 minutes notice that a key tool needed to migrate users was flawed and needed to be withdrawn. The tool allows ISP's to mass migrate users to the DALMax system and so far around 200,000 users had been switched, but BT claim that it was unable to cope with these early beta test volumes.

The lack of notice has enraged ISP's who rely on BT's wholesale services, which see this as a real blow as LLU speeds seem to be ever increasing. PlusNet have been one of those who have been vocal of their criticism of BT.

BT claim that they will have the system up and running correctly in a couple of weeks.

Once upon a time when you wanted an ADSL connection you had to wait for a man from BT to come around and install it, but since 'wires only' it's only business customers who have had the option of managed installs.

Perhaps because BT have lots of idle engineers it's going to offer an engineer to install you broadband, but at a price. Rumours say that this will be around £50, but claims there is a market for the service.

It's part of BT's BT Home IT Advisor (HITA) suite, which also has a  helpdesk service for help on a range of issues such as setting up broadband connections, wireless networking, identifying and removing viruses, and fixing faults which costs £9.99 a month. Alternatively, if customers don't want to subscribe to the service, they can pay a one off charge of £25 to get help solving an individual problem.

BT is to talk tough with customers who use excessive usage on it's retail products.

Starting from this month users who exceed their monthly usage allowance will be sent an email encouraging them to upgrade their packages. Those who constantly overstep the mark will be charged £1 for each additional GB they use over their allowance.

It is all part of a plan to stop 'excessive' usage from a small number of serial downloader, back in March removed around 4,000 of its users for being "consistent breach of BT's fair usage policy and have failed to respond to requests to contact BT to discuss the matter".

BT Retail has launched a faster broadband service based on the MaxDSL connection, this will provide speeds of 8Mbps download with 448Kbps upload.

It will be available from today for no extra chagre for users taking advantage of BT’s Option 4 broadband package, it will be available to new customers selecting Option 3 from April 11, 2006 and will be offered to new customers choosing Option 1 and Option 2 packages later in Spring 2006.

BT also announced today that customers switching to BT from other ISP's can now access broadband and inclusive Evening and Weekend UK Broadband Talk calls for £11.99 for the first three months. 

Existing BT Broadband customers are being offered a free upgrade on a first-come, first-served basis by going to www.bt.com/getbroadband for more information. One downside is that regrades will be subject to a new 12 month contract.

Edit: BT have a website where you can register your interest for MaxDSL.

BT are to swipe the broadband carpet from under 4000 users feet for, what the ISP called, "excessive usage".

According to the telco, these users have been constantly using in excess of 100GB per month. Letters to unlucky have already been sent out, and broadband services culled on the 21st March. BT are further stressing that this is not a one-off action, has been happening for a while, and will continue to do so.

The users identified by BT represent just a fraction of BT's subscriber base, estimated to be 0.2% of the ISPs 2.3 million users.

BT have named their IPTV product, expected to launch this year.

Entitled "BT Vision", BT last December, announced deals with BBC Worldwide, Paramount and Warner Music Group to provide content to its forthcoming IPTV platform. Added to this line up is the Cartoon Network, National Geographic Channel & kids’ TV programming leaders HIT Entertainment and Nelvana.

The service will offer a range of on-demand films, music and TV programming as well as (quote) "groundbreaking" interactive and communications. The service works via a small Set Top Box which customers will plug into their TV. Transmission of the service will come from the customers Broadband service. The Set Top Box will also function as a Wireless hub and Voice over Internet adapter, allowing users to make use of services like Skype, or BT's own BT Communicator.

Initially only BT Broadband customers will receive the service, although this will be expanded as the future progresses.

More information is available at http://www.bt.com/btvision.

Shares in BT rose by 5 percent on Friday after it was reported that the telco could be the subject of a £20bn takeover bid.

The Times has rumoured that a number of venture capitalists looking at BT as a potential target. While this may surprise a few, BT is an attractive target as it has a reliable and well-established revenue stream, a very different company to a few years ago when it reported debts of nearly £30bn.

The problem for investors is the cost of the deal, along with an estimated £20bn price tag it also has a pensions shortfall of £4bn, so don't expect any quick moves from the city.

According to the Mail on Sunday BT is planning to offer free broadband to all of it's customers.

BT currently has 20 million customers, but they will have to wait until at least 2008 to get the service when it's 21st Century Network (21CN) becomes a reality. The £10 billion project is planned to be active in 2009 but senior sources in BT say this may happen a year earlier than planned, with the first city (Cardiff) to be fitted with 21CN completed by the end of this year.

A spokesman for BT said that the service would provide a 'broadband dialtone' as part of the basic line rental, which would mean that customers will only have to plug in their computer. Additional services, including the possibility of buying extra-fast download speeds for as little as a day at a time, will be possible.

While being touted as 'free broadband' there have not been any hints as to the pricing of the basic line rental and whether this will be increased to provide a triple play broadband, telecoms and Video on Demand package.

BT has started flogging it's latest 'add on' and this time they are trying to protect us against online identity theft.

The insurance is named (rather unoriginally) BT Identity Protection and covers you for up to £50,000 if your identity needs restoring. BT claim that's how much is needed to compensate for lost wages, phone calls and legal fees.
Also if it's required you can get your own personal case worker to help you set things straight again.

One rather suspect service is credit monitoring so BT can let customers know if it believes someone is trying to steal their identity, although how many people would want to turn over personal details to BT remains to be seen.

The service will cost from £44.99 a year, but they are providing a free service to it's BT Broadband customers called BT Identity Support, this (as you might have guessed) gives customers practical online and offline support and on preventing, detecting and resolving identity theft.

Rumours that BT's next venture will be in competition to the Samaritans are totally unfounded...