Broadband News

Virgin Media has announced that it will reduce the premium rate charges to its technical support line by June, less than a year after they were originally introduced.

Virgin Media originally upped the charges to their broadband support line in order to reduce the number of irrelevant calls to the line. However, after a negative response to the move the 25p per minute line will now go back to a standard local rate 0845 number, or free by dialling 151 on a cable phone. Customers should expect to receive an email confirming the changes in April and May.

Speaking on the rate charge change, a Virgin Media spokesman said: “Whilst calls to the premium rate broadband support line are already refunded when there has been a fault with our network, perhaps that wasn’t clear.

“We have been working hard to improve customer service and listening to what our customers say, so will now be removing this charge from the outset.”

Source: The Register

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Regulators Ofcom has forced BT’s wholesale division to improve the service it provides to operators and pay out compensation for bad service to customers. Affecting BT’s Openreach service, the new rules will require BT to:

· Pay compensation proactively without Openreach customers needing to make a claim should a fault be fixed or a line provided later.

· Pay every time service or quality falls below the contractual threshold instead of paying out against performance stated as an “average over time”.

· Continue to pay compensation each time problems persist up to a capped limit.

· For local loop unbundling, pay additional compensation for failing to activate “live” lines at double the current amount.

Ofcom revealed that telecom companies had expressed concerns that Openreach was not sufficiently focused on meeting the needs of all its wholesale customers. The new rules will be enforced on 20th June 2008.

Source: Computer Weekly

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The controversial internet-tracking service, Phorm -which received backing from three of the UK’s largest ISPs - has been dubbed ‘illegal’ by a group of Cambridge academics.

The group of scholars from the Foundation for Information Policy Research (FIPR) has expressed concerns that the service infringes users’ privacy and has called on the Information Commissioner to halt the service.

Speaking on the service the team say that gathering information about website behaviour without the user’s consent is a breach of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act:

“Users should have to opt in to such a system, not merely be given an opportunity to opt out,” said a spokesperson from the FIPR. “Failure to establish a clear and transparent “opt-in” system is likely to render the entire process illegal and open to challenge in UK and European courts.”

Currently nearly 8,000 people have signed a petition against the Phorm service, appealing to the Prime Minister to review the UK’s privacy laws.

To add your name to the petition against Phorm, visit http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ispphorm/

Source: Times Online

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The past year has seen the successful introduction of the BBC iPlayer, and despite the fact it was a slow starter it has finally given the UK the chance to view quality television on demand. The success of IP also means that ISPs are claiming that they’re struggling to cope with the increased rate of streaming among their customers and there’s also speculation that it could cripple the broadband business if more TV channels follow suit.

In a recent report on The Register it was revealed that PlusNet showed in the month following its Christmas marketing launch, use of the BBC iPlayer increased streaming costs up by 200%. Concerns are now widespread that the BBC’s intention to roll out the on-demand service onto mobile devices and set-top boxes could heighten the troubles.

In order to calm the situation between the TV institution and ISPs The Register reports that the BBC is planning to invest in a development of its own Content Delivery Network (CDN), provided by a company such as Velocix. By doing this the BBC would install servers in ISPs’ networks so that streams only have to be delivered to that point once, in order to save thousands of downloads.

Anthony Rose, the man in charge of the iPlayer commented on the plans: “The closer you can get the content to the edge of the network the better for everyone,” he said. “Content delivery networks are one of the many solutions we’re considering to give consumers as better experience.”

However, the plan to adopt a CDN tactic has been touted as being wasteful, especially if the scheme to deploy fibre optic goes ahead. Speaking on the subject, The Register summed up:

“The overriding fear must be that the telecoms industry, regulators and government might pull their collective finger out and deploy fibre to the home. Unlikely as that sounds right now, investment in a real next-generation UK internet infrastructure could swiftly render a CDN next to useless.”

Source: The Register

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The UK Internet Industry Awards (ISPAs) took place this week with the UK’s leading ISPs eagerly awaiting news on the best of the internet industry.

Since its launch in 1999, the ISPAs have celebrated innovation and best practice in the field of internet telecommunications and have become a much sought after accolade, with decisions coming from Government representatives and the media.

Last year the Best Consumer Broadband award went to Eclipse Internet after impressing the judges with its ‘zero-touch’ fully automated order processing service and rapid delivery of its broadband services, whilst the Best Business Broadband went to Datanet.

This year, all eyes were on the Best Consumer ISP award with finalists consisting of BT, Orange, PlusNet, Tiscali, Virgin Media and Vispa. PlusNet ended up scooping the prize with a positive summary from the judges:

“The judges agreed that PlusNet put their customers first with transparent usage allowances rather than vague FUPs and their self developed traffic management system. The judges also felt that PlusNet’s one month contracts were very beneficial to consumers.”

Virgin Media crept up again in the nominations for Best Consumer Broadband with Entanet, Seriously Internet and Waitrose also making the finalist list. However, NewNet won the award on the merits of “introducing its own LLU service, offering up to 24 Meg ADSL2+.”

On the Business side of things, Datanet were awarded the Best Business Broadband title and Eclipse Internet picked up credit for outstanding services in the Best Business ISP award.

Included in the finalist list for Best Wireless ISP was BOZII, Kijoma, South West Internet, T-Mobile and Vodafone. Vodafone were awarded the prize with positive comments from the ISPA spokesperson:

“The judges felt that Vodafone’s wireless solution was at the cutting edge of new and emerging HSPA technology with their HSDPA and HSUPA enabling great functionality.”

For the full list of ISPA finalists and overall winners visit The Internet Industry Awards website at www.ispaawards.org.uk.

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