All the latest broadband news from the Broadband Genie news team.
Virgin Media has announced that it will adopt a similar tactic proposed by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and introduce a ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy for those illegally downloading. The new policy will come into force with the next couple of months and customers could face possible disconnection if they continue to download after three strikes have been issued:
A spokesman for Virgin Media said: “We have been in discussions with rights holders organisations about how a voluntary scheme could work. We are taking this problem seriously and would favour a sensible voluntary solution.”
The government has already announced that it will enforce legislation by April 2009 unless ISPs introduce their own voluntary systems.
Source: ISPreview
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
A report on Tech Watch has suggested that broadband consumers are being guided by price alone when deciding which supplier they should sign up with, despite advice from industry experts and comparison sites such like Broadband Genie.
David Allen from Tech Watch explained:
“As anyone can see from a basic price comparison that there is not much in it, so if the ISP’s are competing on price, then what is being left out of the package? That question needs to be asked by consumers looking to upgrade or switch broadband suppliers.”
Allen went on to urge customers to check ISP’s performance in other areas other than price and take their time doing so: “Subscribing to a service which does not live up to the expectations of the user can be a long and painful experience indeed.”
Source: Tech Watch
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
BT recently faced legal action from Ros Fernihough, a 62-year old solicitor over the additional fees the company charges customers that do not pay by Direct Debit. Referred to as “administration cost” by BT, currently customers who pay over the counter are charged an additional £4.50 per quarter.
At the moment, almost half of BT’s 13m customers don’t pay by direct debit and prefer to settle their bills by cheque, cash or electronic transfer, meaning they’re charged an additional £18 per year. Altogether this gives BT an additional annual revenue of £100m.
Fernihough expanded on the reasons for taking BT to court:
“As soon BT wrote to me as a customer, saying I had to pay £4.50 I wrote back saying I’m not paying £4.50 and I’m not paying by direct debit. Please refund my money or I’ll sue you.”
“Now, if BT wants to charge people for collecting the money, i.e. 15p for an electronic transaction, 25p for a cheque, fine, nobody would dispute that. But what about the profit they’re making? We’re not here to help shareholders, we’re not here to subsidise bad debtors. It cannot be right, for the old and the sick; somebody has to stand up for those people.”According to reports, Virgin Media also has a similar scheme in place, charging non-direct customers up to £60 per year.
However, although it was was recently confirmed that Fernihough lost here case, Ofcom is currently consulting on the direction it should take to tackle non-DD penalty charges.
Source: ISPreview
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
Following an exclusive deal between BT Openzone, British Airways and Oneworld Alliance, BA customers will now be able to make use of a free Wi-Fi hotspot in 25 of the airline’s lounges in the UK and Jersey. The new Wi-Fi service will also be available in the new lounge complex in the recently opened Heathrow Terminal 5.
British Airways now becomes one of the first UK based airlines to offer free WiFi to their passengers, and rather than use vouchers, travellers will be directed to the British Aiways website where they’ll be able to connect to a BT Openzone using any wireless-enabled device.
Chris Bruce, General Manager of BT Openzone said: “British Airways has met customer demand for free Wi-Fi head on. Wireless broadband is an essential tool for both business and leisure travellers. The explosion in Wi-Fi enabled devices is accelerating this trend and the British Airways service means that passengers can use their time productively before boarding their flights.”
Source: BT Plc
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
Internet telephone service provider, Voipfone has entered the world of broadband with the launch of a new business broadband ADSL package.
The no contract service is designed to prioritise Voice-over-IP (VoIP) traffic and can be subscribed to for a fixed rate of £45 per month for an ‘up to’ 8Mbps service.
The new Voipfone service can also be used as a voice line, able to host up to 25 simultaneous calls.
Colin Duffy, CEO of Voipfone spoke on the new service: “Our business customers use their internet connections for more and more activities – email and web browsing of course, but also for document transfer, database back-ups, video upload and a whole host of other things. When telephony is added to all that, the broadband connection becomes a mission critical component of the business.”
Source: Pressdispensary
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
The Japanese cellular operator NTT DoCoMo Inc. has recently achieved a download speed of 250Mbit/sec in trials of its future 3G cellular technology.
The new ‘Super 3G’ technology was surveyed in outdoor tests near the carrier’s research and development laboratory in Yokosuka, Japan, and has suggested that it could be part of a commercial launch in the next decade.
DoCoMo began working on the Super 3G project back in July 2006, after planning to bridge the gap between current HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology and 4G cellular systems.
Details of the tests are set for presentation at this year’s CTIA Wireless 2008 show in Las Vegas on 1st April.
Source: Computer World
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
After revealing that they are aiming to deliver ‘up to’ 50Mbps cable broadband products, Virgin Media’s Director of Technical Strategy, Kevin Baughan has expressed caution that many 802.11 based home Wi-Fi networks may be unable to cope with the new speed limits.
Recent trials have found that many Wi-Fi routers were unable to cope with the new speed, and PCs also struggled and had to be regularly reset. However, the Wi-Fi models used in the tests weren’t revealed.
Speaking on Connected Home News Baughan said: “We don’t want to be called up [at the customer care centre] too often…There are lots of opportunities for people to complain about the service so as we look at our roadmap, we have to understand that as speeds increase, it is quite demanding to make sure all the pieces in the home can function at those speeds.”
He continued: “50 Mbps is not so much about speed but the fact that speed no longer matters for people…The biggest lesson from the trial is that the access network stops being a constraint. It lets people get on with what they want to do; it doesn’t stop people from doing anything any more.”
Baughan concluded that he believes 9m UK homes will be able to access 50Mbps this year, rising to 12.5m by 2009.
Source: ISPreview
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
Mobile Broadband company 3 currently has a number of special offers on the price of its prepay dongles as mobile broadband continues to flourish.
The USB Modems, required by customers to access broadband from their laptops has fallen in price from £99.99 to £69.99.
The packages have now also changed to £10 for 1GB allowance per month, £15 for 3GB and £25 for 7GB.
Jonathan Lutz, head of mobile broadband at 3 said: “We’re always striving to bring the best value to our customers. Mobile broadband is a fantastic service and we feel it should be affordable for all our customers, whether they’re on contract or Pay As You Go.”
Reports on Mobile Today indicate that Vodafone stores are currently running out of dongles within two days of receiving the stock and staff have suggested that dongle sales for March are 200% over target.
Source: Mobile Today
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
A fault with BT’s server equipment has left thousands of BT Yahoo customers without email “for a couple of days”, according to reports. Whilst an official spokesperson announced the problem yesterday, however, a number of messages left by visitors on internet message boards suggests that customers have been have problems accessing their email accounts since 11th March 2008.
A spokesperson for BT admitted:
“We have people fixing a problem for a small number of customers who use BT Yahoo. The problem is quite small and is not affecting everyone. Some people’s BT Yahoo accounts are working and others are not.”
BT are so far unable to give an estimated timeframe for when this problem will be fixed.
Source: Vnunet.com
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
At the start of the week Google Inc proposed to U.S regulators to allow airwaves between broadcast channels to be used for mobile broadband service purposes.
Filing new proposals with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Google said that it would like to propose an enhanced system to prevent wireless devices operating in the “white space” from interfering with television channels, announcing the plans as a “once in a lifetime opportunity”:
”The vast majority of viable spectrum in this country simply goes unused, or else is grossly underutilised,” wrote Google’s Richard Whitt in a letter to the FCC. “Unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allow this spectrum to lie fallow.”
Whitt proposed that there was enough unused spectrum to establish an alternative wireless network in the US, or to create a new small peer-to-peer network.
Microsoft’s Bill Gates has also urged the FCC to free up the white space spectrum in order to expand access of wireless broadband services for Wi-Fi purposes.
Source: BBC News
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
