Broadband Comparison, News & Reviews

A new survey by Broadband.co.uk reported that the average broadband connection speed across the UK increased by over 22% over the course of 2009.

The analyst claims to test thousands of connections over the country on a monthly basis and reported that the speed rose up to 4.478Mbps in December 2009 from the lower rate of 3.67Mbps a year ago in December of 2008.

Broadband.co.uk also reported that Virgin Media?s average speed is 7.425Mpbs which is significantly lower than the amount of time it advertises although they were still able to beat out the other broadband suppliers across the UK for the title of the fastest provider.

Be Broadband and O2 placed in second possition with an average broadband speed of 5.143 Mbps which gives Virgin Media a large edge.

However, in terms of improvement over the year Plusnet topped the list with a 28% increase in average speeds and BT came in second place with an increase year on year of 24%.

Edd Dawson, the editor of the website, stated the reports show that companies that rolled out new products over the year showed the most improvement although the course of the product?s performance over 2010 will be interesting to watch.

The slowest provider on the list was AOL with speeds that barely managed to meet the minimum speeds of 2Mbps. AOL also made the list as the slowest on upload speeds at a mere .315Mbps compared to the top finisher BE and O2 which offer average upload speeds of .753Mbps

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Gone are the days when filmmakers chronicle a heart ache of love forlorn, as a new survey suggests that the centre of so called ?chick flicks? may be more aptly be their mobile phones.

A survey conducted by Borro the British pawnbroker found that out of the 4000 women survey 40% would be more heartbroken to lose their mobile phones compared to losing their boyfriends.

Taking the top two places were photographs and their mothers. After mobile phones were best friends and then boyfriends rounding the top five out at fifth place.

In fact, best friends might be feeling the burn a little bit as well given that most women apparently would rescue their mobiles before their friends or boyfriends. On the bright side, the two groups were able to beat out diamond rings, laptops, pets, and hair straighterners so they did at least conquer some of a woman?s favourite possessions.

The list however does include any mentions of children which most men know usually top a women?s list of importance which must mean that the survey was only handed out to younger woman which also may have a more tainted view of romance.

Of course, the question is how men dropped below mobiles in the first place, which can most easily be answered by looking at smartphones. Anymore they are personalized portals to the world, which means a woman can design and control them to hold every pertinent piece of information and behave as they like.

Men on the other hand, will never be that easy to personalize which could be the reason they are ranked number five on the list as dispensable.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

The BBC has finally been given permission to continue full steam ahead with Project Canvas after getting the nod from the BBC Trust.

Project Canvas is a joint venture to bring internet-video services to television that includes Carphone Warehouse, the BBC, Channel 4, BT, Five, and ITV. It has been officially under review since February of 2009.

The aim of the project is to offer on demand video to subscribers over broadband. Its largest opponent has been BSkyB which is owned by the News Corporation.

This morning the BBC Trust is expected to announce that it will offer its support. In order to get the Canvas technology consumers will need to purchase new set-top boxes priced at about ?200 that should become available by the end of 2010.

A source close to Project Canvas stated that the decision will be positive although it will come with conditions. However, the source stated that the conditions will not be too large or confining.

Canvas will offer up content to users from NHS Direct, LoveFilm, possibly Hulu, and the BBC iPlayer. Additional organizations that want to add access to their content will be welcome to submit application designs that users can shop in much like the Apple app store.

The announcement of approval will welcome the wrath of Virgin Media and Sky who have insisted that it discriminates against pay per use TV operators and that it will not offer anything new on the market that currently is not already available on the commercial market.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Beginning January 7^th one million Tiscali broadband and home phone customers will be automatically switched to TalkTalk as the takeover becomes finalized. As a result, some of these customers may see their bills increase up to a third.

Those who are signed into the Tiscali broadband only deal will be forced to pay ?19.99 per month instead of their current price of ?14.99. The customers were told in a letter that they could continue to pay the same lower rate if they agreed to take on the call package from TalkTalk but for some this would not be possible or even reasonable.

If a customer agrees to sign into an 18 month deal Guardian Money the consumer group found that the Tiscali call centre will drop the price of the contract down to just ?7.99 per month in an effort to keep customers.

On the other hand, TalkTalk stated that for the most part customers will not have to pay more once they change over but stated that the new prices would not be released until February. TalkTalk claims that the reason they are secretive over the pricing plans is because they want to write to their new customer base before releasing the package prices to the public.

Mark Schmid, a spokesman for TalkTalk stated that at the moment the company is busy reviewing all 50 tariffs that they have taken on along with Tiscali with an aim to make pricing fair to everyone including current TalkTalk customers.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

A new IPTV venture Project Canvas, would allow people to catch on demand services at their pleasure on the BBC iPlayer as well as view internet content on their television sets. The new venture has now recruited two major ISPs and all public services broadcasters for the IPTV project.

The ISPs are the latest two additions to the scheme, which previously had four companies signed up, with each investing over ?16m in the project. The BBC anticipates that the entire cost to all partners will be about ?16m over the course of the next four years.

Until now, Channel 4 had been holding out against joining into the IPTV project stating economic reasons, but after taking a more thorough evaluation of the project Director of Strategy Gill Pritchard for the channel stated that now is the time to get on board.

Pritchard stated that IPTV will be the new direction of television and that if Channel 4 wants to increase its presence in the programming world it needs to be involved in Project Canvas.

Project Canvas responded to the new additions by stating they are still look for more partners and that any interested parties are welcome to submit proposals.

The group stated that ideally all prospective partners will receive equal shares in the creation of the new IPTV company.

Programme director for Program Canvas, Richard Halton stated that the internet will revolutionize the way that people view television and that by putting broadcast and broadband side by side Project Canvas will open up a new platform that will help secure the fate of public broadcasting.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

British homes that have a landline already installed will be charged an extra?6 pounds every year for the new broadband tax to enable the government reach its goal of providing broadband connections to every home in Britain.

The tax is meant to help the government fulfil their goal of spreading 2Mbps broadband connections to about 90% of homes by the close of 2017.

Chancellor Alistair Darling announced the tax as part of his pre budget report that stated this would help modernize the digital infrastructure in Britain while also creating new jobs across the country.

Darling also stated that although the government has allocated funds to help bring broadband to remote and rural areas, it now wants to work towards the nobler goal of bringing broadband into 90% of British homes.

While the announcement seems like a step forward, it has brought a great deal of cynicism with it from those who do not believe they should have the pay the tax and others who think the tax alone will not be enough to fund the effort.

The major broadband provider TalkTalk has commented that the tax is not fair and that it will keep private companies from being compelled to invest, while BT is worried that the revenues created from the tax will not be enough to get broadband into all the homes in England

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Nokia is ready to move forward with its plans to roll out its new retail strategy, which will include closing its flagship store on Regent Street, London.

The mobile phone manufacturer confirmed that it will be closing the Regent Store in an email that stated Nokia is working on improving the way its retail network works to provide the best branded strategy. As a result t needs to revamp its current strategy which calls for the closure of the flagship store.

The store originally opened back in early 2008 and cost a total of ?4m. It was said to have been spawned by the Finland forests and covered an area of about 8,000 sq. ft. with LED walls that were translucent. Inside the walls were fitted with LCD screens that had audio-visual messages synchronized across them.

Even though the store took a unique approach to design it was not able to draw in enough business which led to low revenues even with occasional long lines during mobile launches.

The store will officially be shut down in early 2010 and the staff will be set to other retail outlets owned by Nokia. Each of the other seven Nokia stores will receive overhauls.

Apple ironically has a store down the street from the flagship store that is supposedly the most profitable Apple outlet. This competition is seen as one of the reasons why Apple was not able to keep its doors open.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Northern Ireland businesses and homes are welcoming the promise of better broadband speeds after it was announced that ?48m has been pledged to improve broadband access in rural and urban areas over the next year and a half.

Businesses that are located in urban areas have the promise of 10Mbps, while those that are found in rural areas can at least look forward to a minimum of 2Mbps. The project is expected to take until May 2011 to complete.

Half of the money for the project will come from BT while the other half will be contributed from several different public funds including some funding from the European Union.

Arlene Foster the Minister for Enterprise, Trade, and Investment stated that her department is looking forward to delivering the commitment program by the Executive Government.

Foster also said that broadband will help to increase the economy in the area as the services will help local businesses compete on a wider scale. Additionally she added that the million pound investment will create up to a thousand new jobs each year which will help boost the local economy.

Most of the improvement will be the result of fibre optic installation throughout Northern Ireland which increases the amount and speed that information can be transmitted as compared to fixed lines.

There will be 166 telephone exchanges upgraded and an additional 1,176 broadband access points created which should help everyone throughout the area get a better connection to the internet.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Gary Ashworth has grown tired of his home in Hambleden a picturesque village near the Thames, Oxfordshire, although his complaints are not because of poor weather or a bad economy in the village.

Instead, Ashworth is fed up because even though he only lives about 35 miles from London the area is a ?not spot? meaning that there is no broadband access in the area.

However, Ashworth?s complaints have grown more vocal since he discovered that although he has been waiting five years for broadband, Sir Michael Rake received it after arriving only a year ago. According to Ashworth this is a clear sign of corruption given that Rake is the chairman of BT.

Ashworth?s chief complaint is that the has used 1,000BT lines for a long time at his business and that it is unfair that he chairman is given preferential treatment over long standing customers.

Last week Ashworth decided to write to BT to complain about the problem and was told by an employee at the executive complaints desk that Sir Michael Rake was simply part of a small amount of people in a trial project for the area.

The letter continued to say that the trial is very small and is being conducted in ten rural communities with only a small amount of users.

When Ashworth asked to be included in the trial he was told that they were not going to add on any other users which he stated is not surprising, although maddening that Rake was selected to be included.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Tesco unveiled a new plan yesterday to bundle home phone packages and broadband deals in order to compete with the major providers of broadband such as Carphone Warehouse, BT, and Virgin Media.

The retailer announced that it will be able to offer the new package services for the next five years after signing a deal with Cable & Wireless.

Tesco announced the new plans after a two day seminar was conducted with analysts in order to fulfil Tesco?s goal of becoming one of the top telecoms service providers in the UK.

It estimates that it will need to continue to make around ?200m in profits and ?2b in sales annually past its normal medium term. If it achieved this goal the company would gain just under a tenth of the telecoms market in the UK which is valued in total at ?22b per year.

Chief executive of Tesco Telecoms, Lance Batchelor, stated that the combined home phone and broadband bundle deals is the core of the plans for expansion. Batchelor continued to say that this would propel Tesco into the same arena of the major providers in the UK such as Talk Talk and BT.

Consumer experts believe that the new move by Tesco is significant because bundle packages by the leading providers currently makes up a large percent of the market and will cause such providers to lower their prices in order to compete.

Batchelor also said that Tesco?s expenditures as a result of the move will be minimized due to the new partnership with Cable & Wireless.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan