Broadband Comparison, News & Reviews

Huge cyber fraud business shut down

Alan — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:29:57 +0000

Although most people would not be able to see the significance of the Wembley Java Bean internet caf?, to the surveillance officers that spent months staking it out it was the final key in breaking through a large network cyber criminals.

Inside a pizza bar worker used the computers to run a cyber supermarket selling account details and stolen credit cards to other thieves. The amount of information that he was able to sell was estimated to have cost the banking industry around tens of millions.

The pizza workers name was revealed today as Renukanth Subramaniam aged 33. He was said to be the orchestrator of a multimillion scheme and the founder of DarkMarket website, which was a hub for fraudsters to sell and buy personal data from each other.

The exclusive secret website was open to fraudsters by invitation only, but eventually the US Secret Service and the FBI were able to break into it, where they found that about 2,000 cyber criminals regularly traded stolen card details and viruses.

The website is now referred to as the top English language cybercrime site across the globe and even offered tutorials for would be criminals that taught them how to skim ATMS, phish for personal details, and hack into computer systems.

The reach of the cybercriminal website was so immense that it had members in Canada, the UK, Russia, US, Germany, France, and Turkey, which makes it hard to put an exact figure on how much it cost the banking industry worldwide.

Vodafone moves large numbers of iPhones

Alan — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 08:02:28 +0000

Vodafone has finally begun to sell the iPhone although they are late in the game as O2, Tesco, and Orange have been offering the smart phone for a while. Despite this fact, the company has managed to get a pre-order count of around 50,000 mobiles, which is much more than the 20,000 Google Nexus One mobiles that were sold after its release globally.

The Vodafone CEO stated that the operator will deliver 50,000 within the first day that the iPhone officially goes on the market for the network, which is much larger than the amount of iPhones that Orange was able to sell this past November, at 30,000.

The iPhone tariffs for Vodafone come in 18 or 24 month contracts with unlimited text packages that begin at the cost of ?35 per month for the 3G version of the mobile. Those who want the newer 16GB 3GS version will need to sign into contracts of ?45 per month.

Vodafone also plans to take its marketing plan a step further by promoting the iPhone as an option for those seeking a business phone which could place it up against the popular Blackberry models that Vodafone also offers.

The only downfall of the Vodafone package is that it only includes 1GB of webmail and mobile internet, but an unlimited WiFi package is available to be purchased. For the time being Vodafone will not offer the iPhone on a pay as you go basis either which makes it more attractive to those with larger pockets.

New free laptop contracts go 3G

Alan — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:08:27 +0000

Laptop computers that previously were distributed to the UK public by mobile broadband providers as part of contract deals will now come with 3G connection ability. The new feature will be available alongside the standard 802 megahertz WiFi that is built into all laptops.

The new 3G cards mean that users will not need to use a USB dongle in order to get online. This in itself is not a significant change, but it does prove that many laptop manufacturers are placing their confidence in the future success of mobile broadband.

BroadbandChoices.co.uk a consumer website has seen a lot of attention by the UK public for mobile broadband mobile contracts that include free laptop deals. The interest of the public is worth noting since the new technology will likely draw more attention. On the horizon may in fact be a new type of data streaming.

There is also speculation that a hybrid technology might be developed that will allow users to tap into general mobile broadband coverage alongside the conventional WiFi. This would be logical as mobile broadband providers have only been able to offer 90% coverage across the UK to their users.

If 3G or 4G were used in place of automatic Wifi then internet access would be seamless across the Internet.

New larger Kindle DX.

Alan — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 05:55:01 +0000

Amazon is gearing up for the future competition that is coming from all directions when it comes to electronic book readers by planning an international launch of the upgraded and larger Kindle DX.

The new model will come with a 25cm screen and will be released in over 100 countries on January 19^th. It was previously released last May in the United States. The international launch also follows the debut of the Kindle 6 in October of last year in over 130 countries.

The vice president of Amazon Kindle, Ian Freed stated that the time for innovation when it comes to e-readers is now, and that the time is right for Amazon to become one of the top of the market.

Freed continued to say that Amazon has come up with a few ideas that other manufacturers have not, such as a larger amount of selections of magazines and newspapers and downloads that only take sixty seconds.

At the moment Amazon stated that it has 100 different newspapers and over 400,000 books available for download on the Kindle and that over the year 10m e-books will be sold within the United States.

The upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show which takes place in Las Vegas is expected to be focused on E-book readers. In fact, the conference has set aside a special are of company representatives that want to showcase their e-book readers to the thousands of analysts, bloggers, and journalists who are expected to attend.

Broadband speeds increasing

Alan — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 07:51:01 +0000

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

Women love smatphones more than boyfriends

Alan — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 07:03:30 +0000

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.

Be Broadband new low cost high speed deal

Alan — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:53:30 +0000

Be Broadband, a company owned by Telefonica, has released a new budget value that offers internet connection speeds of 8mphs for around ?90 a year, at the rate of ?7.50 a month. The new deal is much better than the previous cheapest deal by the provider, but also allows users a download quota of 40GB per month.

Everything else in the budget package has the same details of any other Be Broadband package, which includes an ADLS2+ wireless modem, a one year contract, round the clock customer support, and an upload speed of 1.3mbps.

The provider stated that the contract will be for unlimited until June, 20^th, 2010 and that users who think that they will need higher speeds or download quota can choose the next level up which costs ?13.50 per month.

Head of operations at Be Broadband, Tom Williams, stated that the company has noticed that the marketing trends are to provide more freedom among package options and packages that are lower in price.

O2 and TalkTalk will be the main competitors for customers after these facets with TalkTalk offering customers a package that includes broadband connection and free evening and weekend calls within the UK for only ?7 per month.

This may be more threatening for BE if it was not shouldered by its parent company O2 which allows it to build phone deals together with broadband in any areas where there is a network for it to utilize.

New deal at Sky Broadband

Alan — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 06:09:37 +0000

Sky Broadband is offering a great deal for those who thinking about switching their broadband provider: Switch to the Unlimited plan that is bundled with Sky Talk Freetime and get all evening and weekend landline phone calls for free for the first six months.

Along with the deal are speeds of up to 20MB depending on the location that a user lives in and the line quality.

The new deal is not available to those who are already Sky Broadband Unlimited customers and the availability of the broadband is limited by location with some set-up fees that may apply. Those that live outside of the Sky network area may have to pay ?17pm more for use of the line.

Sky TV customers are eligible for the offer if they are within the Sky network area but the offer is not able to used alongside any other offer from Sky.

In order to get the deal an active BT compatible line is required and the offer will show up as a ?10 credit on the Sky TV bill over the first six months. After 45 days of ordering the service customers that do not meet the eligibility criteria will have to pay back any previously disbursed refunds. In order to get the deal you must sign a 12 month contract for Unlimited Sky Broadband.

Ebay step up anti-fraud action

Alan — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 05:52:20 +0000

Many start-up (or up-start) web businesses from the nineties are a now a permanent fixture such as eBay, however the problem with these websites is that while they have connected plenty of buyers and sellers they have also helped out some crooks along the way.

President of AFI International Group Inc, Peter Martin, stated that crooks reselling stolen goods on auction websites are a huge problem because any company that has a product that can be re-sold can be struck by online fraud.

However, auction websites are not the only places that crooks head to as they are also increasingly using social media websites to sell their stolen wares according to Martin. He stated that with the growth of websites such as Facebook now social networks are giving sellers a large group of customers that they can reach and find.

Principal Cynthia Navarro from Finnegan?s Way said that eBay was designed to make it easy for buyers and sellers to find each other, not to stop fraud. Initially there were a ton of complaints, but according to Navarro over the years eBay has done a lot to counter the amount of fraudulent transactions that happen on the website.

As online web business has developed eBay has stepped forward to take the lead in combating online crime by implementing certain mechanisms that make it easier to prosecute and investigate criminal activity.

For example, the popular auction site has a program called VeRO which reports intellectual property right infringement directly to the proper authorities.

Ebay has also launched an outreach program called PROACT that is set up to help security and loss prevention managers create undercover accounts so that they can investigate possible leads that may lead them to thieves selling stolen items online.

Project Canvas gets final BBC go-ahead

Alan — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:59:01 +0000

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.