All the latest broadband news from the Broadband Genie news team.
T-Mobile first quarter results have been announced revealing that one in four customers are choosing to opt for mobile broadband.
Showing growth in both data and broadband sales the company has predicted that broadband numbers will quadruple by the end of 2008. T-Mobile has now increased its customer base by 2.3 per cent to over 17 million.
T-Mobile UK chief executive, Jim Hyde spoke on this positive Q1 results:
“We are seeing strong growth in the uptake of mobile broadband. During 2007, just 4 per cent of new contract customers signed up for mobile broadband but this has now shot up to 25 per cent. The increase in our non-voice revenues is a direct reflection of this positive trend.”
A future strategy has been announced with T-Mobile planning to increase the number of retail stores this year to 300. A new joint venture with mobile broadband operator 3 will also mean that customers are able to make use of nationwide high speed 3G broadband using the first integrated cell site, first trialled in Leeds and Bradford.
Source: Mobile News International
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
BT’s CEO Ben Verwaayen stepped down from his role yesterday after revealing the company had increased underlying profits by 3 per cent, taking the total to £5.78bn.
Leading the company for six years, 56-year old Verwaayen has been praised for making the telecoms company an increased success during his six years in management. He is due to be taken over by previous BT Retail boss, Ian Livingston at the end of this month.
The strong quarter results left BT shares up two per cent after profit exceeded expectations. The number of broadband end users was marked as a highlight with a total of 12.7 million at March 31, 2008 of which BT’s retail share was 25 per cent. BT retail continues its reign as Britain’s most popular broadband provider with over £1 billion of contracts signed in the quarter.
Ben Verwaayen commented on the fourth quarter results:
“We have finished the year in style with a strong fourth quarter performance. BT is in great shape with year on year growth in revenue…It has been a fantastic privilege to work with so many great people over the past six and a half years. I am extremely proud of what they have achieved and I believe BT has a great future.”
Source: BT PLC
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
In their Q1 results, Orange has confirmed that it has lost 31,000 broadband customers. The total has fallen from 1.138 at the end of December last year to 1.107 million in the last tally. However, it’s not all bad news as the total number of broadband customers is still up 12,000 year-on-year.
An Orange spokeswoman said: “Orange has over three million UK broadband customers across mobile and fixed, and remains the leading fixed-broadband operator in Europe with over 12 million customers.”
Source: Mobile Today
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
Following an official complaint made by mobile broadband operator 3 with the Advertising Standards Authority, Vodafone has revealed that it will no longer claim in its adverts that its dongles offer download speeds of 7.2 Mbps.
The 7.2 will no longer be used ‘as a headline rate’ in its marketing campaign following 3’s complaint that the actual download speed experienced by customers was only 6.69Mbps.
However, Alec Howard, head of PC connectivity at Vodafone UK, confirmed that the reason of the change was more to do with a shift in the market from business to consumer rather than 3’s input. He also confirmed that Vodafone’s marketing would now focus on the time it takes to perform common tasks rather than the download speed: “Figures such as 7.2Mbps don’t mean enough to enough people,” said Howard. “We need to talk in a mass-market language.”
The ASA hasn’t ruled a decision so far on 3’s complaint against Vodafone. However, a full verdict is expected at the end of June.
Source: Mobile Today
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
Nintendo has announced that it will be making eight game titles available for its new Wii download service when it launches in the UK on the 20th May.
Using a broadband connection, customers will soon be able to download games directly to their console for a price of around £3.50 and £11.50. Credit is accumulated in the form of “Wii points” that can be bought with a credit or debit card at a number of different high street stores.
The launch titles have been announced as; Dr Mario & Germ Buster, Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Lost Winds, Pirates: The Key of Dreams, Pop, Star Soldier R, Toki Tori and TV Show King.
The new broadband download service is hoped to attract smaller game studios to develop games for the console that would previously not have been able to create big budget games.
Wii’s founder and creative director Nic Watt spoke to the BBC on the new download service: “We are a new studio and this is our first title. Getting a contract to make a disc-based game can be hard going. With WiiWare, there are no upfront costs. We just sell as many copies as we sell. It cuts out the middle man and allows us to fund our next project.”
BT Total Broadband are currently offering new subscribers to their 8Mb BT Total Broadband Option 2 and 3 packages the chance to get a free copy of Mario Strikers Charged Football. In order to claim for their free game, customers are asked to make a note of their broadband order confirmation number displayed on the final page of their confirmation email and visit http://btnintendo.onlinerebates.com/ to complete the claim form.
Source: BBC
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
In an effort to improve cost efficiencies and provide a richer mobile broadband experience for their customers BT Wholesale has announced that they are to join forces with O2.
Under a new five-year agreement BT is to design and implement a new communications infrastructure that O2 will be able to use to cope with the predicted increase in network traffic caused by bandwidth-hungry mobile phones.
The new agreement is set to improve services for O2 customers, the first of which being the newly released O2 Business Broadband.
With download speeds of up to 20 Mbps the standard O2 Business Broadband is claimed to be one of the fastest mobile business connections in the UK. However, with the new agreement with BT in place customers outside of the O2 coverage area will now be able to receive O2 Business Broadband Access. The new Access service will provide download speeds of up to 8 Mbps with the same features as O2 Business Broadband.
Source: Computer Weekly
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
Reports flooded in yesterday suggesting that Carphone Warhouse had failed in its bid to buy out the UK section of Italian broadband provider Tiscali. However, Carphone Warehouse (AOL, TalkTalk) has rejected the claim in a statement to The Independent. A spokesman for Carphone Warehouse said:
“We have not heard anything from Tiscali, so as far as we are concerned we are still in the game. We are regarding the reports as speculative.”
News spread that Carphone Warehouse did not qualify for a shortlist of second round bidders for Tiscali, which was believed to hold six names. According to tech rumour the names on the second round bidding list include Vodafone, BT, BSkyB, Fastweb and Italy’s Wind.
Summing up the process The Independent featured a quote from a source close to the negotiations as saying:
“Discussions are still very much in the preliminary stages and the bankers are wanting to whip up as much creative tension as they can force all the players to the table. It is just the usual fun and games.”
Source: Mobile Today, ISPreview
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
Vodafone UK has announced that it is to extend its high-speed broadband network out to 3 million more consumers in a new multi-million pound venture.
By Autumn 2008, the mobile operator’s broadband coverage will be branched out to serve a 7.2-Mbps 3G network to new locations in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Reading.
As part of the new network strategy, Vodafone UK has also confirmed that it is to simplify the way that customers will be able to sign up to its internet packages:
“Customers can expect to see more information at the point of sale to help them understand the time it will take to download files, films and music on the mobile broadband network,” confirmed a Vodafone statement. Information such as the number of websites customers will be able to browse within their bundle will also be made clearer:
“The recent acceleration in the take up of mobile broadband has demonstrated just how hungry consumers are for Internet access wherever they are,” said Nick Read, CEO of Vodafone UK.
Source: Total Telecom
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
Following a promising trial with Nortel and Juniper Virgin Media has announced that it will begin rolling out 50Gbps network services later this year.
On trials testing a connection over a Virgin network on a 350km stretch between London and Manchester, the companies claim that they achieved broadband speeds of up to 40Gbps, although it is hoped that speeds of up to 100Gbps could be accomplished on this system.
Speaking on the successful trial, Daniel Hennessy, director of technical architecture at Virgin Media, said in a statement: “Our aim for this trial was to ensure that we continue to meet the growing capacity needs of the high-speed services we deliver,” he continued. “Our optical network will provide a solid foundation for growth as it takes advantage of technology designed to avoid electrical regeneration and, where possible, reduce the incremental cost of scaling transport capacity.”
Once the new system is put into place, Virgin Media plan to offer four different speed packages of 2Gbps, 10Gbps, 20Gbps and 50Gbps. Although an official date hasn’t been announced, the release should be later in the year.
Source: Vnunet.com
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
According to a survey by ICM, later reported in the Times Online, despite an increase in broadband saturation of around 65 per cent, one in five adult Britons are still unable to open a word processor and just under 20 per cent still cannot send an email.
Whilst it doesn’t feature as high in the stats, 16 per cent of Britons claim that using search engines is a problem for them, whilst 28 per cent feel that they are at a loss by not being able to use a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace.
Trends found that those with such poor IT skills, that it hindered the chances of gaining employment had the highest saturation in areas of the North East, whilst London had the highest IT proficiency.
The study by ICM found that ‘time’ was blamed as the main cause of computer illiteracy (48 per cent), whilst 28 per cent claim they just ‘didn’t know where to start’. More than 40 per cent of adults over 18 were concerned that technology was ‘outpacing their IT skills’.
Speaking to the Times Online Helen Milner, managing director of UK Online Centres, said: “Many people may struggle to name someone they know who can’t use the internet, but go into one of our centres and it will be full of them. One in three adults don’t have even the most basic computer skills.”
Source: Times Online
Share This
Sphere: Related Content
