Broadband Comparison, News & Reviews

By 2012 researchers estimate that over one billion people around the globe will be utilizing mobile broadband. At the same time that this figure was released, many of the operators around Europe are claiming that the high level of mobile broadband use is starting to cripple their networks.

In an attempt to accommodate users Vodafone is doubling its broadband capacity up to 14.4 megabits per second; however Vodafone says that UK users should expect to see average speeds of 10.8Mbos.

In March of 2009 Ofcom stated that three million homes across Britain had access to mobile broadband. Most of these homes use dongles to enable their internet access from anywhere that has a mobile signal.
According to SFR, a French operator, dongle use requires 450 times more use of bandwidth than typical mobile phones.

Senior analyst at Juniper Research, Howard Wilcox, said that the mobile broadband service is popular most with young adults who are on the move and want to be able to take mobile connectivity with them at all times.

Wilcox added that the growth and wide availability of smartphones has also fuelled the use of mobile broadband which is straining the networks of mobile operators.

For the most part, the majority of consumers who complain about mobile broadband experience usage problems and low speeds in office buildings and in busy areas where congestion is high.

Principal analyst, Phil Sayer, of Forrester Research said that the availability of new spectrum left over from the switch from analogue to digital television may be the solution to the problem.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

There may be good news on the front for BT customers as the largest phone company in the UK may soon have to reduce how much the company charges its 14 million landline customers for broadband and pay TV due to a watchdog ruling that is aimed at levelling the competitive playing field for telecom companies.

Ofcom, the telecoms regulator watchdog, lifted restrictions that it placed on BT telecoms when it was a private company in the 80?s that prevented the company from creating bundled package deals for broadband and line services at a discounted price.

The new change may mean that in the coming autumn for the first time BT can begin to offer package deals to consumers which rival companies have been able to do for years.

When the news was received, BT stocks immediately saw a jump of 4.4% which left the company as the largest riser reported on the FTSE 100 index.

BSkyB and Virgin Media have been packaging fixed line and broadband bundles which allows the companies to sell both services to customers at a reduced rate versus paying for the two services separately.

Due to the previous ruling which was aimed at preventing BT from getting a monopoly the company could only offer packages to customers that equalled the sum of what the two components would cost separately.

Since BT does not hold the same market power any longer Ofcom believes that it is now ok to create healthy competition among the competitors.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

Research continually points out that broadband customers are struggling with their internet connections because despite what providers advertise, the actual speeds of most broadband network connections are about half of what is promised.

Ofcom took an in-depth look at one of the most popular internet service provider’s advertisements that claimed to offer speeds ‘up to’ 8mbps and found that most users only receive speeds of 3.9mbps. About 75% of UK households subscribe to this service which means a vast majority of UK citizens may be upset with their internet speeds.

For those who are not aware of what the speeds may translate into, with a speed of 3.9mbps it would take about two hours to download a full DVD quality film while it would only take an hour if the speeds delivered were the same as the speeds advertised.

According to further results from Ofcom, only one out of every ten homes that subscribe to an 8MB service actually get speeds that are faster than 6MB and not one home receives 8MB due to the way that ISP’s wire their networks.

Ofcom stated that the average speed that most people receive across the UK is 4.1MB which is enough to double the time of every download that you start.

26% of people told Ofcom that they were unhappy with the speeds they received since the speeds are not what they signed up to receive.

Tiscali and AOL which are owned by TalkTalk came in last in internet speeds delivered versus promised speeds with Virgin Mobile scoring the highest internet speeds in the UK with delivery that reaches up to 10MB.

The Communications Consumer Panel is advocating that ISP’s change their advertising to eliminate consumer complaints with the theory that customers will be satisfied if they are correctly informed versus mislead.

Filed under: Broadband Deals by Alan

A new survey from ISPreview.co.uk revealed that currently 58.6% of people in the UK with broadband deals are not satisfied with the speeds they are receiving and over 52.2% of them would be happy to pay a little extra if faster speeds could be promised.

Editor of ISPreview.co.uk stated that with so many new faster broadband services such as BT and Virgin Media offering fast speeds current providers are disappointing customers y failing to meet the standards that they promise which is beginning to make a difference in the way UK customers view ISP’s.

Jackson added that with the new code of practice instituted by Ofcom hopefully customers will rate ISP’s better in the future if they are given adequate information in regards to the speeds they can hope to receive on a regular basis instead of advertising a high speed that comes attached to many variables that makes it hard to actually every receive and experience.

The same study also asked customers to choose what speeds they were supposed to be able to access on their broadband deals with over 52.7% of respondents answering that they were paying for 8Mbps of broadband speeds.

Interestingly enough, only 13.1% of the polling audience answered they paid for service that was 1 to 2Mbps with most answering higher meaning that the Government’s aim to solve customer discontent by mandating all speeds reach 2Mps by the end of the year may not actually be much help in getting the UK society online happily.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

The final version of Lord Carter’s, the Communications Minister, Digital Britain report was finally made public yesterday but those who are familiar with the content in the interim version of the report will notice that there is not much difference between the uncertainties of the interim report and the final report.

Most of the emphasis is the same in both versions with the primary content based around the goal of connecting the entire country of Britain to broadband but not too many details about how the UK Government will complete its noble goals of offering access to all UK citizens at speeds of at least 2MB.

The report did include recommendations that mobile broadband spectrum be allocated which delighted Vodafone and O2 as they are overly satisfied with the receipt of 900 Mhz spectrum they were allotted but major mobile carriers Orange and T-Mobile out in the cold until more allocations will be given after the switch to digital to analogue TV is completed.

The Digital Britain report also addressed the problem of how to regulate and control copyright infringement and piracy with additional power placed in the hands of Ofcom to regulate broadband issues. It also included new funds that total up to £200 million towards connecting parts of the UK with broadband that current have substandard broadband quality.

For the most part the report looks positive and if correctly enacted will greatly improve the condition of the broadband access in the UK, but the argument remains that the standard that it set the bar at is too low and there is a lack of clear direction.

Filed under: Broadband News and Reviews by Alan

An interesting study conducted by Ofcom exposed some surprising results to those who thought that offline people simply stay offline due to the expense of owning a PC and internet bills.

According to the results of the study, 42% of (currently not online) adults in the UK would choose to stay offline willingly even if they had a free broadband connection and were given a free PC, meaning that cost is not the reason why some people are not up to the digital age’s expectations.

On the brighter side, the study also showed that 1 in 5 of the UK adults who do not own a broadband connection do plan to go online in the next six months. The poll results were collected to represent the interest of the 17 million Britons who are not currently online, or in other words the 30% who are offline.

The UK government aims to promote people heading online, which make the Ofcom results a little disappointing as they may have more of a challenge than previously thought in completing their plans.
Yet, according to the study although 42% of the offline population claim they do not have an interest for the internet, out of which many must tend to belong to the older generation, 30% of the population simply reported they were offline because they did not know how to use the internet or it was not financially viable.

Peter Phillips, Ofcom’s market development partner, claimed that broadband is very important to society, and that the results of the poll show that a little creativity will be needed to show those who lack interest just how life changing and beneficial joining the online world could be.

The good news, the Communications Consumer Panel also reported after conducting a study, that 73% of those who do use the internet describe it as an utility that is as essential as electricity or water.

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