Broadband Comparison, News & Reviews

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.

Filed under: Broadband Deals by Alan

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

Now that O2 is owned by the Spanish operator Telefonica it has about 21m mobile phone subscribers as compared to BT which only has approximately 19.4m customers.

The news of the new rankings came as BT was forced to report a fall of 45pc in its pre-tax profits leaving their total at ?547m compared to the profits of Telefonica which are a much larger ?1.7 billion.

BT was forced to sell O2 in November of 2001 which was then known as BT Cellnet when profits started to collapse. In 2006 Telefonica purchased O2 for the record setting ?17.7 billion, which was the largest telecoms takeover in mobile history.

The chief executive of BT, Ian Livingston, seemed to regret selling O2 in comments that he made yesterday when he said that BT is pondering the best way to enter the mobile market once again when the Government finally auctions off mobile phone spectrum in the coming year.

According to Livingston, the proposals by the Government to give current operators the rights to the 2G licenses are a waste since a new auction is a best way give Government coffers a boost.

Analyst Lawrence Sugarman of ING stated that the comments show that BT?s revenues need to be increased and that the company is clearly looking at all possibilities for moving forward after they chose to leave the mobile market too early.

In just this year alone O2 has increased its mobile subscribers by about one million even though the other four major operators in the UK were only able to add 400,000 subscribers collectively.

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