Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:42:24 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/ en-gb http://www.uk-bug.net/images/logo.gif http://www.uk-bug.net/ team@uk-bug.net http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1757.html Although the number of Wi-Fi hotspots is exploding it's clamed that they will become obsolete in the near future.As you would expect the claims come from the mobile industry, Ericsson's chief marketing officer to be precise, who was speaking to delegates at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm. "Hotspots at places like Starbucks are becoming the telephone boxes of the broadband era," "In Austria they are saying that mobile broadband will pass fixed broadband this year. It's already growing faster, and in Sweden, the most popular phone is a USB modem," Johan Bergendahl chief marketing officer Ericsson While using mobile broadband maybe more convenient than having to find a hotspot, there are two flaws in his argument. The first is regards to the speed difference between a Wi-Fi connection and using a mobile device, but this a minor problem with carriers improving their networks. The main problem is down to cost, using a Wi-Fi connection at say Starbucks, costs the user nothing and there is no commitment. A mobile connection on the other hand is likely much more expensive, even though Bergendahl says that it could be as low as €20 a month. Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:42:24 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1756.html Pipex Communications which is one of the UK's oldest ISPs and bought by Tiscali last year has decided on a name change and have gone for the less than catchy name of GX Networks Ltd. Communications, such as emails and bank charges from Pipex will now show as GX Networks, but according to an email sent to customers it will be "business as usual" although Tiscali have made no secret of wanting to shift it's broadband business, so it could be that ex-Pipex customers will get another owner. Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:26:22 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1755.html 2008 which has been based on research conducted by YouGov and covers the top 10 ISP brands. The survey was conducted online through out of the UK, but excluded Northern Ireland during January and February of this year and queried around 4,000 broadband users with at least 3,000 responding to each questions. PlusNet came out top overall having top marks for five of the six categories 1 - PlusNet - (www.plus.net) 2 - Sky Broadband - (www.sky.com) 3 - Pipex - (www.pipex.co.uk) 4 - Tiscali- (www.tiscali.co.uk) 5 - Virgin Media - (www.virginmedia.com) 6 - AOL Broadband - (www.aolbroadband.co.uk) =7 - BT Broadband - (www.bt.com) =7 - TalkTalk - (www.talktalk.co.uk) =7 - Tesco Broadband - (www.tesco.net) 10 - Orange - (www.orange.co.uk)   The Quality & reliability of your home Internet Service Winners - (very satisfied / fairly satisfied) PlusNet - 88.3% Pipex - 87.9% Virgin Media - 83.0% Sky Broadband - 81.0% Losers - (fairly unsatisfied / not at all satisfied) Tesco - 23.8% Orange - 14.2% TalkTalk - 13.9% AOL Broadband - 12.8% Download times of files and web pages Winners - (very satisfied / fairly satisfied) PlusNet - 82.9% Pipex - 74.6% Virgin Media - 71.1% Sky Broadband - 69.4% Losers - (fairly unsatisfied / not at all satisfied) Tesco - 36.5% Orange - 21.2% TalkTalk - 19.5% BT Broadband - 19.1% The clarity of pricing & billing Winners - (very satisfied / fairly satisfied) Sky Broadband - 77.1% Tiscali - 75.3% PlusNet - 74.7% Orange - 73.2% Losers - (fairly unsatisfied / not at all satisfied) Pipex - 16.7% BT Broadband - 16.1% Virgin Media - 11.3% TalkTalk - 9.2% After sales support Winners - (very satisfied / fairly satisfied) PlusNet - 73.9% Pipex - 66.1% AOL Broadband - 54.0% Sky Broadband - 53.4% Losers - (fairly unsatisfied / not at all satisfied) Orange - 28.8% TalkTalk - 27.9% Virgin Media - 24.4% BT Broadband - 23.8% Good value for money Winners - (very satisfied / fairly satisfied) PlusNet - 81.1% Sky Broadband - 75.7% TalkTalk - 73.7% Tiscali - 62.4% Losers - (fairly unsatisfied / not at all satisfied) BT Broadband - 28.7% AOL Broadband - 18.4% Virgin Media -16.5% Orange - 16.0% Speed of service activation (after sign-up) Winners - (very satisfied / fairly satisfied) PlusNet - 73.6% Pipex - 67.7% Sky Broadband - 66.8% Virgin Media - 62.6% Losers - (fairly unsatisfied / not at all satisfied) TalkTalk - 25.4% BT Broadband -18.6% Sky Broadband - 17.0% Tiscali - 16.2% Thu, 6 Mar 2008 10:17:32 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1754.html Be Broadband has said that it plans to roll out ADSL2+ technology to an additional  400 UK telephone exchanges by June this year.The company, which is owned by O2, has said that this will enable it to reach two million more households which will give it a coverage of 67 per cent of UK homes. As O2 broadband use the Be network infrastructure then this effectively increases it's network coverage also. "This is the next stage in our development at Be as we believe that reliable high speed broadband takes continual innovation and investment," "We are already testing new technologies that will enhance not only the network but our speed," Oli White head of Marketing at Be Be offers three packages which all use ADSL2+ technology, starting with the basic 8Mbps package at £14 a month rising to the Be Pro which will allow the full 24Mbps if line conditions are ideal, this costs £22 a month. Wed, 5 Mar 2008 11:20:27 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1753.html National Express has said that the number of Wi-Fi users on the East Coast railway has tripled during the first month since offering a free service. Although it's been free for first class passengers for some time, unsurprisingly many 'normal' passengers didn't really want to fork out the £4.95 an hour to get connected. Now it's seen number of those connecting jump from 30,000 in December to a whopping 100,000 in January, with more that 85 per cent connecting using a laptop. "The popularity of the service has surpassed our expectations and we are delighted to have had such a positive impact on people's journeys." Alan Hyde head of communications at National Express East Coast Tue, 4 Mar 2008 20:56:25 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1752.html Fast4.net has launched a new ADSL2+ broadband service giving 24Mbps for under a tenner a month.The ISP has switched to an entirely unbundled (LLU) network and said that some customers will be able to surf at 22Mbps with an upload speed of 1.3Mbps, though as with all ADSL connections this will decrease the further that you live from the exchange, as well as bad line conditions. Five levels of service are available starting at £9.98 a month rising to £24.95 for the Pro package. "We have not changed any of our prices for these new services which means that if customers wish to switch to us they can enjoy 24Mbps broadband for only £9.98 a month." Nick Pulsford Fast4.net New customers who switch to Fast4 can also receive one month's free service and although the contract is only a minimum one month there is no exit fee Tue, 4 Mar 2008 20:42:41 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1751.html Virgin Media has announced it's best quarterly growth for seven years, and said that it should be able to hit 5 million UK customers by the end of the decade. The telco added a total of 24,000 new customers in the last quarter of 2007, nearly twice as many as the same time the previous year. This brings it's total number of customers to 4.8 million of which 3.7 million also take advantage of their broadband services. Customers who take advantage of more than one service rising from just over 40 per cent last year to just under 50 per cent. Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:27:53 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1750.html It seems that the predictions that the iPlayer would affect bandwidth and increase data usage may have been not far off the mark.Data released by one ISP, PlusNet, shows that it's costs per user tripled in the first full month since the release of the iPlayer back on Christmas day. The streaming cost per user has risen from 6.1p a month to 18.3p in January, it this is a common value amongst ISPs then it's claimed that the iPlayer has increased the cost to the market as a whole in the region of £1m in it's first month. Some ISPs have claimed that they will have to resort to traffic shaping, although some who already do have found that it's not the easy option. The BBC claimed that the iPlayer is good for the broadband industry and has a "negligible impact on the UK internet infrastructure". "There may be a win-win for the industry where services like iPlayer drive demand from users for broadband access in the first place, and for higher bandwidth packages, and for (paid-for) quality-of-service guarantees from the ISPs," Ashley Highfield BBC director of future media and technology Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:15:47 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1749.html The government has announced that it will undertake a review of broadband in the UK and it's future.It seems that in recent months most of the talk within the industry is how to provide a larger capacity connection to the UK's internet users, or more specifically how this is going to be funded. Both BT and the government saying that they would let market forces dictate what happens next, rather than investing in the massive cost for new infrastructure. The review will be carried out by Francesco Caio, who is former chief executive of telecoms firm Cable & Wireless and will focus on how to provide future high speed broadband. This won't be a cheap option as it's estimated that the cost of upgrading the service to BT's 5.6m residential customers would be £1.1bn. The review will report back to government ministers and Chancellor Alistair Darling in the autumn. Sun, 24 Feb 2008 09:00:49 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1748.html Government proposals for legislation to tackle illegal downloading are unworkable and should be scrapped in favour of self-regulation claim the Internet Service Providers’ Association (ISPA). It says that such laws which have been introduced to govern technology have a poor track record, with the last attempt, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, taking three years to implement. "The history of law and technology providing efficient results is not great,.....Self-regulation is more nimble, not as restrained and is less cumbersome," ISPA spokesman ISPs were not that happy with the plans either "The plan transfers the cost of copyright enforcement to the private sector, which is not our responsibility as a neutral carrier of traffic" said a BT spokesman while Virgin Media said that "There is a lot of legal peer-to-peer traffic, and sorting legal and illegal content would be difficult,". Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:53:49 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1747.html The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has announced that it will carry out a follow-up inquiry to it's infamous Personal Internet Security report.It seems that most of it's recommendations were rejected by the government last August when it claimed the internet was like the "Wild West". Some of the suggestions which were rejected including calls for increased resources for police to deal with internet-based crime like identity theft and a reversal of the requirement that victims of online card fraud report the crime to their banks rather than the police. Chair of the Committee, Lord Sutherland said: "The Committee was disappointed with the government's response to its report. We felt they had failed to address some of our key concerns about people's security on the internet." It has written to those who originally gave evidence to its initial inquiry to ask them for their views on the government's response and plans to publish a short follow-up report early in the summer. Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:44:34 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1746.html The European Union has announced plans that it will invest £10m in a new research project for using peer-to-peer technology (P2P) for internet television. It's planned to build an open-source service called P2P Next and will join 19 universities with broadcasters like the BBC to help them find better ways to reach the TV-downloading online audience and offer high-quality on-demand television. The total budget of £14m will be used to provide the service to different devices including both PCs and set-top boxes. "It is our intention to allow audiences to build communities around their favourite content via a fully personalised system," "This technology could potentially be built into VOD services in the future and plans are underway to test the system for broadcasting the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest live online." P2P Next spokesperson Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:38:09 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1745.html It seems that you need to watch out if you live in Berwick and decide to use someone's Wi-Fi connection.Berwick police have arrested two men after they were caught sitting in a car and using laptops, it seems that they were piggybacking an unsecured wireless network, although it's not known what they were in the process of viewing at the time. The men were charged under under the 2003 Communications Act with dishonestly obtaining a communications service and were bailed pending further enquiries. Neighbourhood Inspector Sharon Stavers told the Berwick Advertiser that Wi-Fi users should ensure that there wireless networks are properly secured. "They should make sure that all the security systems are in place to keep their computers safe," she says. Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:30:14 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1744.html According to comparison site uSwitch.com a whopping 54 per cent of broadband customers failed to receive their MAC code on the first request. Even though it has been a year since Migration Access Codes (MAC) were made mandatory by Ofcom so that broadband consumers could switch seamlessly between one broadband provider and another. While the more than half of customers said they received their MAC code within a week of applying, nearly 21 per cent had to wait two weeks and nearly 15 per cent had to wait more than a month. This is worrying as a MAC only lasts 30 days so depending on the actual release date customers could find their time left to find a new provider seriously reduced. While complains to Ofcom over MAC codes have fallen from 825 in March last year to 517 in January 2008, research by BroadbandChoices.co.uk show that fifteen per cent had to make two requests for their MAC codes while over sever percent had to ask more than six times. The picture with local loop unbundling (LLU) doesn't look to rosy either, while 34.5 per cent said that they experienced no downtime a fifth said thay had to wait a more than a month to be reconnected.onnected again. Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:10:06 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1743.html Virgin Media has been suffering email problems since the beginning of this month and have had to call Microsoft in to help.The bug affects around 10% of it's old Telewest customers and results in emails taking up to 11 hours to arrive. As it's only one of Virgin's total of eight mail clusters which is experiencing problems it seems that the situation has even got the Microsoft scratching their heads, as the only way to resolve the issue is the ever popular fix of rebooting the server. Virgin hope that its migration to Exchange 2003, which it has sped up, should fix the problems. "Service should be improved now [not saying all's sorted!] and the key focus for us is to push on with the Exchange 2003 migration. We have some additional resources being allocated to try to speed things up as much as we can." "We have been suffering intermittent problems affecting email access for some customers with @blueyonder.co.uk email addresses," "We have been working with our platform supplier Microsoft to establish the cause of this problem and have made good progress, however some issues remain. We are working to resolve these as a top priority. Virgin Media apologises for any inconvenience this may have caused." Alex Brown senior product manager Virgin Media Tue, 19 Feb 2008 07:00:00 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1742.html Tiscali has admitted that it kicked four of it's broadband users off after their being grassed up by the BPI.The ISP says that it sent warning letters to 21 customers, but it seems the majority decided to keep their broadband connections by stopping sharing music over P2P connections. It seems though that these will be the last casualties as Tiscali have said that they have ripped up the voluntary agreement with the BPI, which was the sort of deal the BPI would like to have in place. The problem seems to be that the BPI don't want to shoulder any of the costs involved, while the ISP thought it's agreement included a provision for sharing the cost. "While there have been discussions between BPI and Tiscali, we have not been able to reach agreement on a long-term solution," "That's because Tiscali is trying to force us to pay a substantial levy to enforce its own terms and conditions." "Discouraging customers from using their accounts unlawfully is an obligation that any ISP should bear as part of its core business," "That is the socially responsible thing to do, and it's disappointing if Tiscali sees illegal behaviour on its network as a further opportunity to make money at the expense of the music community." BPI The problem must be that the music industry is feeling hard up for cash due to file-sharing. Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:58:51 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1741.html Epitiro have released their rankings for the top ISPs in the UK, with O2 coming a respectable third. O2 only entered into the broadband in October last year and have shown it wasn't just hype when they claimed that they would  be a “breath of fresh air” to the industry with a policy of “total transparency” amid confusing and misleading broadband speed claims. BT claimed the top spot once again, followed by Plusnet, which itself is owned by BT but run as a separate company. Tiscali took the fourth place and Orange  came in fifth. O2 and Orange replaced Demon  and Pipex , who had respectively taken second and fourth place in the previous quarter. "While many customers are choosing their service provider on price alone, an increasing number seem to be choosing their service on download speeds, and judging their selection of company on crude online speed tests. Both approaches could lead to disappointment." "It’s important to remember that download speed is just one indicator of broadband performance. Other factors such as the reliability and quality of the network connection are just as important as speed when judging an internet service." Gavin Johns managing director Epitiro One thing to note is that the survey only covers the larger ISPs, often many smaller providers provide a far superior service than the 'big boys'. Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:49:21 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1740.html One third of consumers wishing to switch broadband provider don’t do so because they have no faith in the process according  latest research from BroadbandChoices.co.uk . The poll, which mirrored previous studies, was carried out to mark the first anniversary of a mandatory Migration Authorisation Code (MAC) which was introduced by Ofcom to make switching providers easier. In 2007 the figures for consumers switching broadband provider rose, to 13 percent (up from nine percent in 2006). Current statistics show that one in four consumers is looking to switch broadband provider in 2008. But whereas 300,000 consumers switch energy supplier every month with ease, broadband switching has only 154,917 switching per month. "Many consumers are afraid to switch in case something goes wrong" "Some are concerned they will be stuck with a hefty bill for the privilege of moving, and that they could in fact be left without a connection for long periods – catastrophic for those relying on it for their livelihoods. Others simply can’t be bothered with the headache of call centres, half of which have been shown in our research to offer conflicting advice to customers when it comes to switching." Michael Phillips product development director BroadbandChoices Mon, 11 Feb 2008 19:23:54 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1739.html This week we have seen the larger broadband providers such as BT, BskyB and Orange, release their results from the last quarter of 2007. While Virgin and Tiscali have yet to post their results the figures revealed can show the trends in the marketplace and where things are going in the industry. BT proudly announced that it retained its title of the 'UK’s biggest broadband supplier' after gaining the largest amount of new connections at the end of the year. This allowed it to have a 35 percent share of all new broadband connections, the extra 177,000 new punters swelled it's number of customers to 4.25 million and netted it a very nice £1.46bn promptly overtaking rival Virgin Media. BskyB, or just Sky to most of us, also saw rapid growth seeing an extra 260,000 new faces giving it an increase of 28 percent, this allows it to become the UK’s fastest growing broadband provider. The figure of 47 percent for the number of customers who take another service from them shows that it's bundling strategy must be working, this is an increase of 17 percent on last year. With the good news for some there has to be losers and Orange reported disappointing results. Although they added 75,000 new subscribers they also lost another 4,000 between October and December. This growth for a provider 1,138,000 customers will surely disappoint the board. Speaking on the trends in the industry Ciaron Dunne, from comparison site  Broadband Genie, commented. "Although two major players, Virgin Media and Tiscali still have to announce their latest figures, the reports released so far have been incredibly revealing. Bundled services seem to be doing wonders for subscriber figures,” he continued: “What this might suggest however, is that if trends continue the way they are, companies who are unable to offer attractive bundles and other innovative services may not stand a chance against the larger, more established, and wealthier ISPs." Ciaron Dunne Broadband Genie Sun, 10 Feb 2008 09:10:28 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1738.html Sky Broadband was the fastest growing broadband provider of 2007 after reporting large increases in customers. It's numbers rose from 260,000 to 1.2 million last year with 44 percent of these being new customers for Sky. What will be good news for the Sky accountants is that around two-thirds of it's customers have decided to pay for their broadband rather than option for the free 2Mbps package, with nearly half bundling their broadband with at least one other Sky product. While in the past Sky has had a patchy broadband reputation things seem to be changing as they also reported the lowest churn in customers in three years. Wed, 6 Feb 2008 11:59:32 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1737.html TalkTalk has complained about a number of Virgin Media adverts which it has shown in the press recently. One of the Virgin ads which they took exception with was one titled "Truth, Lies and Broadband" "There are lots of companies out there selling 'high speed' broadband, claiming to be the fast and cheapest in the land" "The thing is, ADSL uses your phone line so it slows down the further you live from the telephone exchange. This means you might not be getting the speed you pay for. Most broadband companies wouldn’t tell you that. We’re not most broadband companies." Virgin ad TalkTalk took the matter to the Advertising Standards Authority, but they ruled against them stating that the advert didn't mean to imply that other broadband companies deceitful. Tue, 5 Feb 2008 12:28:08 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1736.html Tiscali has announced that it will offer customers technology to to offer its customers protection from dangerous online relationships.The ISP has partnered up with online safety company Crisp in a bid to fight child grooming. It uses technology which they claim gives far better protection than traditional website-locking, blocking and word filters. It analyses the content of online conversations to indentify inappropriate relationships that are initiated by predators wanting to groom, and potentially abuse, children. It also looks at sexual content, punctuation, aggression levels and sentence length, typing speed and vocabulary. Crisp compares all these elements with dynamic, minutely-detailed profiles of real-life groomers and genuine children of a variety of ages. Any potential grooming will be notified to parents either via a text message or email. "We have worked for a long time with organisations such as the Internet Watch Foundation to ensure that children are able to use the internet safely and are committed to working with government to protect children from the potential dangers that exist online." Alex Hole online media director for Tiscali UK Crisp says that the software was independently tested by Cambridge University researchers and found to be 98.4 percent effective in identifying inappropriate relationships. It will be available by a subscription service for £3.50 a month or £42 a year and will be available from March of this year. Mon, 4 Feb 2008 20:05:24 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1735.html Tiscali  has struck a deal with Disney-ABC International Television to allow it to show 400 hours of premium content to Tiscali TV subscribers. This will allow customers on it's Entertainment Mix, who can view C1 which is Tiscali's VOD channel, to access shows like Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Scrubs. "We’re delighted to be adding to our already hugely diverse library of top quality drama and comedy with the some of the most watched and talked about US shows of recent years. This agreement with Disney means Tiscali TV customers can be even further satisfied with subscribing to the most comprehensive VOD service available, as well as continuing to receive all their favourite linear TV channels." Jonathan Sykes Managing Director Content Strategy Tiscali TV Customers can choose to subscribe to Tiscali TV from £19.99, which also includes up to 8Mb broadband, a free wireless router and set-top box and free weekend UK and international calls. Mon, 4 Feb 2008 19:52:09 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1734.html Ofcom has said that if us Britons want faster connections for VoD and similar bandwidth hungry applications, then we will have to pay for it. Speaking at a Video on Demand conference last week Jeremy Olivier, who is the regulators head of convergent media, thinks that ADSL2+ with at least a 24Mbps speed were needed for such applications and consumers would "have to pay to build this." What he has failed to grasp is that for most people a ADSL2+ connection will be nothing like 24Mbps with only those living very close to the exchange fully benefiting. During the conference it was said that ISPs thought the costs were prohibitive and there was not the consumer demand at the moment to build faster networks. While faster copper networks would improve the situation, it's becoming increasingly obvious that the UK needs to more to fibre based systems to provide faster networks, either to fully fibre to the home or at least to the cabinet (FTTC). But as with all things costs will have great effect on when and how this is implemented. Mon, 4 Feb 2008 11:39:50 +0000 http://www.uk-bug.net/Article1733.html The BBC has now made the iPlayer download player compatible with Firefox after months of only an being available for Internet Explorer users. While it's good news for Windows XP users those using a Mac or Linux as an operating system have been told that they could wait up to two years for it to be ported across to other platforms. In the meantime they will have to rely on the streaming version which is proving more popular than the download version, with over eight times more viewers using this version. "It's good because it's the first real non-Microsoft thing we've been able to do with the download iPlayer." "I was surprised that Kontiki [the Verisign P2P platform that distributes video for the download client] has a strange Internet Explorer plug-in to support Firefox support, and there were problems with that. What we did was to write our own Firefox plug-in instead." Anthony Rose iPlayer development chief While the streaming version was hastily rolled out it seems that it will be the main way to view it's online files, with the P2P download version as a compliment or as the method for HD delivery which the BBC hopes to roll out. Fri, 1 Feb 2008 19:16:54 +0000