Broadband News

Ofcom has announced that it will be reviewing the prices that BT Group Plc can charge rivals for using its telecoms networks. The potential change in pricing comes after a significant increase in competition was noted.

The communications regulator has confirmed that it will be conducting a two-part consultation and it will aim to publish a final statement before the end of the year.

Previously a national institution and state-owned monopoly, BT has been under a watchful eye ever since it was privatised in 1984.

This isn’t the first time that BT has been under the spotlight from Ofcom on network pricing. Back in 2006 BT launched a separate business unit under the title Openreach to provide wholesale access to its telecoms network to rivals on a neutral basis including Carphone Warehouse, BSkyB and Virgin Media. At the time of this launch Ofcom agreed a maximum price for Openreach. However, this maximum price did not account for inflation, or other expenses:

“Since the charges were first set and Openreach was established there has been a transformation in the telecoms market, with a significant increase in direct competition in the provision of both telephone lines and broadband services,” Ofcom said in a statement.

Source: Guardian.co.uk

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Carphone Warehouse is all set to bundle free laptops together with their broadband packages next week when it launches its new Wireless World Project.

Expect to see plenty of advertising hitting your newspapers and televisions as Carphone Warehouse endeavours on a multimillion-pound advertising scheme, explaining the operator’s new offerings

It has been reported that laptops will be distributed to Carphone Warehouse customers across the country throughout June. In the larger Carphone Warehouse outlets customers will also be able to purchase their broadband and laptops from a designated central display unit.

Carphone Warehouse is rumoured to have 6,500 laptops in total to hand out – a batch worth more than £2.3 million.

Source: Mobile Today

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Now that a buy-out of Italian operator Tiscali has failed, suggestions are circulating that the Italian and British operations are likely to be sold separately.

During Tiscali’s ‘bidding round’, rival ISP Vodafone made the highest offer, however this has been rejected. Sky and Italian firms Fastweb and Wind are also said to have placed a bid for acquisition.

Tiscali previously commented that they would prefer to keep the company whole. However, as shareholders have had a say in the procedure it is now believed that there will be more value in separation.

A presentation will take place next week in order to stir up interest with potential buyers. Rumours are that BT, Telecom Italia and Virgin Media still have an interest in the buy-out.

Source: Digital Spy

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A regular reader and contributor to watchdog website www.ispreview has submitted a report looking into the correlation between poor exam results in Hastings and poor broadband performance.

Reporting from his website www.thecaretakers.net, it has been suggested, “an estimated 3500 pupils could find that their education has been affected by a lack of broadband speed in Hastings and St.Leonards.” Comparing the results to neighbouring schools whose pupils can happily surf the net at speeds of around 4-8Mbps, pupils who lived in the catchment areas of The Grove School, Filsham Valley School, West St. Leonard’s Primary School and Saxon Mount Schools are reported to only be able to achieve speeds of around .5-1Mbps.

TheCaretaker revealed that three of the main secondary schools in the Hastings area (all of which can only connect to slow broadband connections) had been put into’collaboration’ under a private company following poor performance results.

“More worrying, part of the plan to improve exam results at all 3 schools, involve communications links for pupils between school and home. Although East Sussex County Council has equipped its schools with super fast dedicated broadband lines to cope with the future, nothing has been done to help pupils in these areas get faster speeds,” said TheCaretaker. “In fact many are still using dial-up connections which are totally useless for any multi media experience.”

However, as well as lack of option the report went on to suggest that due to low income many may not have looked into acquiring the ‘slow broadband’ at all, instead choosing to save the money on a quarterly fee for a BT phone line.

“The Site Manager/Caretaker at Filsham Valley School actually shares his broadband connection wirelessly with families in the area who have chosen to take this route,” it was reported on www.thecaretakers.net. “With some special modified equipment to his telephone line, he has achieved a 2Mbps connection and shares this speed with families in the area.”

Installation of fibre optic cables has been suggested to be the most efficient way of resolving the broadband speed problems in the Hastings area.

Source: The Caretakers’ Website, ISPreview

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Results from a research project conducted by anti-spam software company, ClearMyMail has been published, revealing a list of the Top 10 spam targeted UK ISPs. The idea behind the research was to reveal which ISPs left their customers in the most danger of spam-based computer problems.

The results were as follows:

1. Orange = 96% averge spam rate
2. Toucan = 92.5%
3. Force 9= 90.3%
4. UK Servers = 89.9%
5. Pipex = 88.5%
6. MacUnlimited.net = 85.9%
7. Sky = 84.9%
8. BT Internet = 84/7%
9. TalkTalk = 82.8%
10. Tiscali = 81.3%

As an example, the ClearMyMail survey shows that 96% of emails then went through the ClearMyMail anti-spam system via Orange ISP’s were either spam or contained a virus.

Previously, Orange’s last quarter results placed them at number six on the list with an 89% average spam rate. TalkTalk showed the greatest improvement (from 95% to 82.8%).

The survey also revealed which countries were responsible for sending the highest volume of spam emails. The Top 10 countries sending spam to UK Email accounts were:

1. USA= 19.53%
2. UK = 15.68%
3. Uruguay = 6.45%
4. Turkey
5. Russia = 3.68%
6. Spain = 3.46%
7. Poland = 3.29%
8. Germany = 3.25%
9. China = 3.19%
11. France = 3.12%

Source: ISPreview

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