Broadband News

The Register has revealed that BT has admitted that it used customer data to test Phorm’s ad targeting technology last summer.

Following the confession BT now faces legal action from some of their many customers who believed that their data was used in the tests.

In a statement on the subject a BT spokesperson said: “We conducted a very small scale technical test of a prototype advertising platform on one exchange in June 2007. The test was specifically conducted to evaluate the functional and technical performance of the platform.”

“Absolutely no personally identifiable information was processed, stored or disclosed during this trial. As with all service providers, it is important for BT to ensure that, before any potential new technologies are employed, they are robust and fit for purpose.”

In the news story, The Register revealed that they initially asked about BT’s involvement with Phorm in July 2007 (when it was known as 121media). At this time BT “denied any testing and said customers whose DNS requests were being redirected must have a malware problem”.

Following the announcement, BT will now use a similar scheme to Carphone Warehouse and provide customers with an “opt-out” service:

“We are already developing an opt-out solution that would remove the need for opt-out cookies altogether. We have carried out significant due diligence in this area, and are informed consent from our customers will satisfy the necessary legal requirements.”

Source: The Register

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Although received speed is the root of most broadband user’s rage, a big cause of many customers’ angst is of a more personal nature. A survey of 4,000 consumers recently found that Tesco and Orange were the worst performers when it came to general quality of service and support.

The results of the survey were based on quality and reliability, download time, clarity of pricing and billing, aftersales support, good value for money and speed of service activation.

PlusNet came out on top of the survey with an average of 79% of users saying that they were ‘very/fairly satisfied’ with their broadband service across all six categories.

The final results were as follows:

1. PlusNet
2. Sky Broadband
3. Pipex
4. Tiscali UK
5. Virgin Media
6. AOL Broadband
7. BT Broadband
8. Talk Talk
9. Tesco
10. Orange

Source: The Inquirer

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Reports are coming in that BT Wholesale is planning to launch a new device that could potential increase the speed of ADSL broadband connections.

The £10 device is claimed to speed up connections by reducing electrical interference from household objects such as televisions, set-top boxes and fairy lights – common objects that BT says can reduce a broadband connection to a snail’s pace.

According to the telecoms firm, interference from these household objects is caused by excessive noise on the line. The new device called an Interstitial Plate (iPlate) is said to reduce this phenomenon and after being placed in the master telephone socket it is designed to eliminate noise and subsequently boost broadband speed.

BT says that it’s provided around 1,000 customers with the iPlate for an initial trial run and has been happy with the results. “We’ve seen huge increases in speed,” said Ashley Pickering from BT Wholesale. “On average, it makes one and a half megs of difference.”

The iPlate is expected to launch with the next couple of months and BT says that it should be simple enough to fit without an engineer. The device would be installed by unscrewing a plate in the master socket and slotting in the iPlate.

In similar news, PC Pro has posted an article revealing that BT claimed it managed to fix the broadband connection of an entire neighbourhood by buying one of its customers a new television.

As a result of electrical interference from the faulty TV broadband services were affected within a 200m radius: “Lots of people in that neighbourhood were experience connection problems because of one person in that area,” said BT Wholesale’s Ashley Pickering. After tracking down the cause of the problem Pickering said that BT had trouble convincing the owner of the TV that he was causing problems for his neighbours: “It’s very difficult to tell people they have a faulty television when they’re watching it. In the end, we bought the guy a new television.”

Source: PC Pro

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Following the controversial news that the UK’s main ISPs will be adopting Phorm’s targeting advertising service, TalkTalk has issued a statement in order to calm customer concerns revealing that the implementation with be on an “opt-in” basis.

Rather than have to opt out of the service TalkTalk has decided to give their customers the choice to be a participant of the service. They also promised that those who have not chosen to participate will “not ever come into contact with any Phorm equipment hosted within TalkTalk”.

However, despite their wary approach the statement was keen to point out that they had been reassured by the advice of the Lawyers, Accountants and Home Office that Phorm was “not an invasion of privacy”. The statement concluded that Phorm had the highest protection and integrity of anonymity of any similar service they knew of.

“By making the service Opt In, we feel the onus remains firmly with Phorm to make the service useful and compelling enough that subscribers will choose to join it,” said a TalkTalk spokesperson. “If it fails to do this, it will itself fail.”

Source: ISPreview

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Wi-Fi hotspots are doomed to go the way of the street phonebox according to Ericsson’s chief marketing officer Johan Bergendahl.

Despite the increased development in public Wi-Fi hotspots, Bergendahl said that mobile broadband was growing faster than mobile or fixed phone lines ever did. As such, there would be no need for hotspots in places such as high street cafes:

“In Austria they are saying that mobile broadband will pass fixed broadband this year. It’s already growing faster, and in Sweden, the most popular phone is a USB modem,” said Bergendahl at the European Computer Audit, Control and Security Conference in Stockholm.

Bergendahl predicted that HSPA will be as common as Wi-Fi is today, but factors such as coverage, availability and roaming will be essential to its success:

“Industry will have to solve the international roaming issue,” said Bergendahl. “Carriers need to work together. It can be as simple as paying €10 (£7.60) per day when you are abroad.”

Conspiracy also made up part of Bergendahl’s speech, with him expressing suspicion that hotels around the world were stopping radio signals to hinder customer’s mobile broadband.

Source: Techworld.com

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