Broadband Comparison, News & Reviews

The film and television industries in the UK are calling on the government to take a stand against online piracy, which has become an issue of great concern in recent times.

Their suggestion is to introduce online versions of “speed humps”, which would restrict or throttle the broadband connections of users who share copyrighted material illegally. According to industry experts, speed humps, along with labels and pop-up warnings on sites should help to bring down the rate of online piracy.

As part of the Digital-Britain report, the government has pledged to protect the interest of the creative industries. However, with over five million people sharing files illegally in the UK, the TV and film industry holds that pursuing online piracy through the courts would not be a practical solution.

As an alternative, they propose that internet service providers should undertake technical measures to control internet piracy. One such suggestion is that people who persistently share files illegally should be warned about the legal implications of their actions and that the sites frequented by such users should be closed down.

Although the ISP’s currently send letters of warning to people who are found to be illegal file-sharers, industry experts maintain that piracy can not be controlled without government intervention. Advocates of such a policy envisage a series of technical and legal measures acting as road humps to slow down illegal file-sharers and eventually eliminate internet piracy.

The precise nature of such “speed humps” would be determined by the industry and the internet service providers through an agency which was proposed in a report by Lord Carter, the communications minister. The software industry which has also expressed concern over the rising tide of piracy would be a part of the agency.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

The recent announcement by the UK government that all homes will have at least 2Mbps of broadband speeds in every home by 2012 have left many viewing the task as too challenging for a result that will not suit the future of most people’s technology needs.

According to Ofcom, this project will have to address 16% of the homes across the UK which is a stunning figure for just a three year time frame.

However, the Government responded to naysayer’s by stating this is only a baseline figure and is only one component of a much larger broadband improvement scheme.

Low broadband speeds are most frequently found in rural and community belts as broadband speeds are defined as the amount of distance a home is from the telephone exchange.

However, more homes are affected as there are high-speed fibre lines in their area, but access is not permitted to area residents such as the town of Ewhust, England where one would not expect low Internet speeds.

This is due to the fact most people struggle with dial up since the large fibre connections are owned by nearby Mullard Space Laboratory.

However, according to ThinkBoadband, a popular UK technological publication, fibre is unlikely to be the solution to low broadband speeds as it is not cost efficient since it costs too much to lay fibre connections.

Estimates have been compiled that suggest that £5.5b could be spent by BT to bring the UK to widespread 2Mp speed if fibre was utilized.

BT Spinoff, Openreach, has offered to talk to community groups about the possibility of local citizens taping into its high fibre solutions, but managing director Amy Chalfen stressed that high speed broadband solutions should not be treated exclusively as BT’s responsibility.

If you want to be sure you are getting the fastest broadband deal you can, try a broadband comparison tool periodically, to make sure your deal is up to date!

In the end, most of the broadband speed concerns boils down to one thing according to Jupiter Research Analyst, Ian Fogg: economics. This is perhaps the most controversial element of the entire Government proposal with lower economic areas finding themselves forced to live with low speeds indefinitely.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Only two weeks are left to sign up for three free months of broadband access. The offer is part of the money saver incentives from Be Broadband and O2. All customers who sign up for O2’s pro or premium packages before the 15 June get their first three months’ access for free.

For customer’s who do not subscribe to O2 mobile phone service stand to make a saving of up to £44 for the premium connection and up to £66 for the pro connection. For existing customers of O2’s mobile service, the saving is £29.37 and £51.39 respectively.

The pro and the premium services are designed for heavy internet users and offer super-fast connectivity with speeds of up to 20 Mbps in some areas. The services come with unlimited monthly usage and free McAfee antivirus security software package.

A similar package is offered by Be, which can also be availed by the end of May. Customers who sign up for Be’s Pro and Unlimited broadband packages are entitled to three free months of broadband access. This translates into a saving of £22.50 for the Unlimited and £64.50 for the Pro service.

To avail of Be’s offer, customers need to visit their website and sign a 1 year contract with the award-winning internet service provider. While completing the purchase, the promo code of 3MonthsFree has to be entered to get the promised discount.

After the initial 3 months of the contract, Unlimited customers are charged £17.50 and Pro customers are charged £21.50 per month.

Be’s Unlimited and Pro services, like those of O2, are designed for heavy users of the internet and online gamers. Both the services promise speeds of up to 24 Mbps and unlimited monthly downloads.

In recent years, both Be and O2 have continued to perform well in the customer satisfaction department. According to several independent surveys published recently, Be and O2 rank among the top internet service providers in most categories of service.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

BT Broadband, Britain largest broadband service provider has limited the download speeds of some of its cheaper packages. According to a BT spokesman, the move was “in order to optimise the experience for all customers”. However, many broadband users have accused BT of reducing the speed without sufficient warning.

Particularly, BT Broadband has reduced the speed at which users can watch video content on sites such as YouTube and the BBC iPlayer. During peak times, a customer with a connection speed of up to 8 Mbps could have it reduced to 1 Mbps or lower.

The BBC expressed concern that the restriction of download speeds would affect the viewing experience for many visitors to its site.

Depending upon the user’s connection speed, the BBC iPlayer operates at speeds of 500, 800, 1500 and 3200 Kbps. BBC sources claim that BT’s policy might force users to lowest bandwidth service, which would result in a less than satisfactory experience for the viewer.

According to statement released by the BBC, the users who stand to be affected the most would be those who are used high-quality content and that this would result in a serious throttling of traffic for the iPlayer site.

BT on the other hand, claims that their speed limit policy, called Total Broadband Fair Usage Policy, is fully explained on their website. A clause in the policy states that in the Option 1 product, video streaming speed is limited to 896 Kbps during peak times.

USwitch.com, a price comparison site, mentioned that BT was not the only internet service provider whose fair use policies are difficult to locate on their websites. Steve Weller of USwitch.com said that providers who have a traffic management policy generally hide their terms on their websites, in an effort to make it difficult for the users to get out of their contracts.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Our humble offerings are here to help you find the best broadband deals available in your area, and to try to explain some of the frequently confusing terminology associated with the broadband industry.

We will have guest articles, news, tips and advice, as well as scam warnings, intended to help you avoid being ripped off once you are online.

We are also developing an exciting broadband comparison service, which will launch very soon!

Stay tuned folks, it’s going to be a fun ride!

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