“I am who I am because of everyone,” proclaims the opening line of the new Orange promotional run. This sentiment is at the heart of the company’s largest ever globally coordinated rebrand to be launched across Orange’s worldwide markets, starting on the 5th July 2008 here in the UK.

The catchphrase “I Am Everyone,” is set to replace the traditional “The Future’s Bright” slogan. The idea of this is that in today’s increasingly online world, traditional communication barriers are breaking down and this changes the way that people interact with each other. It’s also meant to represent the changes that the Orange group have made, starting out as a mobile network provider, before branching out into broadband and fixed line calls and digital TV.

The campaign is set to launch this Saturday, with the 60-second “I Am Everyman” TV ad, a voiceover and a single camera shot that pans around the experiences of the everyman narrator, specifically experience with those important people with whom he has made connections with in his life, from best mates to teachers to girlfriends.

For more info, check out i-am-everyone.co.uk

BT have recently made changes to their Option 1 and Option 2 broadband packages; the monthly usage allowances on both of the packages have been bulked out, with the previous 5GB limit on the Option 1 offer now doubled up to 10GB, and the Option 2 package (which gave customers 10GB of usage per month) now giving punters a more well rounded 15GB a month. Option 3 packages, of course, remain unlimited.

Like the Virgin Media speed upgrades this week, these package alterations cost the customer absolutely nothing, and again, like Virgin Media, there has been no big PR fanfare surrounding the change. Still, this is a welcome freebie for BT subscribers, who will surely benefit from the added value to their broadband services.

A new study in the US shows that the majority of American dial-up users are not interested in broadband. The research, conducted by the Pew Institute, found that 62% of users with dial-up had no interest in switching to a faster connection. 35% said the price of broadband would have to fall before they would consider upgrading, while 19% said nothing would tempt them to switch. This could be because they are happy with their connection and see no need for higher speeds.

Lack of broadband availability is also a problem for internet users in the US, with 14% of dial-up users saying they stuck with the slower connection because they couldn’t get broadband in their area. Rural Americans had the most trouble getting faster Internet connections and most of them say they would get it if they could.

In contrast, BT estimates that 99% of UK households now have access to broadband, though connection is slow and unreliable in rural areas. Unsurprisingly, the poor and the elderly are least likely to have a connection. However, the survey found that attitude, rather than availability or affordability was a determining factor. A poorer person who was convinced of the importance of a faster connection was more likely to pay extra for broadband, than a wealthier person who had not been informed of the benefits.

Virgin Media has sent letter to 800 of its customers threatening to take action if they persist in downloading music and videos illegally.

The crackdown, initiated by the BPI which represents the British record industry, will go on for 10 weeks during which “thousands more letters will be sent”, according to a BPI spokesman. The aims to “educate” people about illegal file-sharing. The BPI’s tough stance on downloading may result in some ISPs being prosecuted if they do not do more to stop the practice. The BPI wants all ISPs to operate a three strikes policy, in which users downloading files illegally are given two warnings, then disconnected it they persist. With an estimated one in five Europeans involved in file-sharing, this move is unlikely to be popular with providers who believe that threats of disconnection may upset their customers.

As yet Virgin Media is the only ISP to have signed up to the policy. However, so far it has disconnected none of its customers, and is keen to stress that its current campaign to tackle illegal file-sharing is for education purposes only. The company said that wording on the warning letters that threatened customers with possible disconnection was a “mistake”. Virgin Media are to review the policy in mid-August.

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said that that the organisation was prepared to back up the education campaign with legal action: “If we have to go to court, we will go to court and we will win.” Under the current policy, the BPI tracks illegal traffic on file-sharing networks. It then looks for the IP address from which the traffic has come and informs the ISP. Virgin and the BPI then send a joint letter to the individual. Letters are sent both to people who’ve downloaded just one single file illegally, and those who have downloaded thousands.

Some ISPs such as Carphone Warehouse who have refused to instigate the policy could be taken to court by the BPI. Others already have their own policy for dealing with file-sharers. BT, for example, has already threatened some of its subscribers with disconnection.

“We do work with various bodies to help them protect their copyright material and will sometimes pass on warning notices to customers on their behalf where we feel this is appropriate” the telecoms company said in a statement. Geoff Taylor believes that the notion that everything on the net is free should be challenged: “There is a phenomenal amount of piracy out there and we believe that the idea that 95% of content on the net is free is not sustainable. We don’t believe that society can allow the free consumption of content to persist.”

That may be the case, but as US Judge Marilyn Hall Patel – who presided over the Napster case back in 2001 – said “There’s no such thing as a free lunch, but sometimes lunch is more expensive than it should be.”

O2 has come out top in a new study looking at broadband speeds in the UK. O2’s broadband service provides download speeds over 50% faster than its competitors in the UK. The website moneysupermarket.com found that its 8Mbps service gave an actual average speed of 5.39 Mbps. Runners up for the 8Mbps prize were Sky achieving an average of 3.59 Mbps, and TalkTalk an average 2.99 Mbps. O2 also leads the industry in terms of 16 Mbps and 20 Mbps packages, with an average speed of 8.15 Mbps. The average broadband speed in UK is 2.97Mbps.

Over 20,000 speed tests were carries out as part of the survey. The tests revealed that ISPs were reducing download speeds during peak times. However BT, O2 and Orange managed to keep up their speeds during peak hours while other providers struggled with capacity.

The top three providers all offer broadband as an add-on to existing packages – satellite for Sky, a landline service for TalkTalk, and O2’s mobile service. All three have sidestepped BT’s wholesaler service meaning fewer overheads and more control over speeds. The study showed that for best value, customers should opt for 2Mbps packages, where actual speed is 2.11Mbps for an average price of £10 a month. Packages offering least value for money are those with maximum download speeds of 16Mbps, where an average speed of just 7.02 Mbps typically costs £18.60 a month.

T-Mobile have unrolled high speed HSUPA across its network, allowing for faster mobile broadband services, and have launched some new packages allowing customers to take advantage of the faster speeds. Both the 12 month and 24 month T-Mobile Plus (3GB) and Max (10GB) Mobile Broadband plans are now available to buy with either the standard USB Dongle, or the new high-powered USB Stick modem.

The T-Mobile Stick modem is available for either a one-off £19.99 fee for customers taking out a 12 month contract, or free for those who sign up for 24 months.

HSUPA, which stands for High Speed Uplink Packet Access, is a 3G technology that allows users to upload content from their mobile phones to websites at speeds of up to 1.4mbps. T-Mobile has also improved download speeds on the HSPDA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) enabled 3G network to 7.2Mbps in the Greater London area - T-Mobile plan to extend this to other major cities in the UK towards the end of the year, enabling maximum mobile broadband speeds of up to 4.5Mbps in these areas.

See what we did there with that clever title? Until recently, Virgin Media’s mid-range Size: L broadband package furnished customers with a top download speed of 4Mbps and unlimited downloads – the top speed has now been bumped up to a much more impressive 10Mbps, and isn’t costing existing Size: L customers a penny.

The blurb on their website now boasts that it takes customers just “4 seconds to download a music track”, and stresses that no BT phone line is required for sign up.

Apart from this, Virgin have been atypically quiet on the PR front about this free upgrade, possibly because they’ve been talking about doing it since last year, and maybe because they’ve recently ran into a spot of trouble with the ASA (again) for their misleading ‘Hate to Wait’ ad campaign.

This free speed upgrade was announced around about the same time that Virgin Media dimed the speed of the Size: XL package from 10Mbps to 20Mbps. No plans as to whether the current Size: M package will receive similar dimeage have been announced just yet though. Virgin are expected to unroll the 50Mbps service they are currently trialling to UK customers by the end of the year.

Residents and businesses in rural Scotland will at long last have access to broadband under a new project that will greatly improve the area’s infrastructure.

A £3.3 million contract has been awarded to Avanti Communications Group, which will cover capital and project-management costs to establish networks. This follows a government initiative in which Scottish residents were asked to sign up to a register if they required broadband access where it is not available in their area. Over 3,500 homes and businesses signed up to the list.

The improved connectivity is expected to be available by 2009 in North Sanday, Rousay, Jura, the Angus Glens, Ettrick Valley, Skye and Wester Ross. Avanti, which primarily supplies networks, will also serve as an Internet Service Provider to the locals and businesses who registered with the scheme, according to managing director Matthew O’Connor. Avanti will sub-contract installation and management services to its partner RDS.

Enterprise Minister Jim Mather said: “In this 21st Century, as many people as possible should have broadband access. It is a vital tool for business, helping drive economic growth, and is now used by ever more households as standard.”

A national advertising campaign launched by Virgin Media has been banned after BT lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority.

Virgin Media’s “Hate to Wait?” advert featured a table comparing download times of music tracks and TV shows when using Virgin Media’s various broadband packages. The company has made much of its superior download speeds for broadband in comparison to its rivals. BT complained to the ASA that advertised broadband speeds were misleading, since Virgin’s traffic management policy imposed a cap on download speeds at peak times.

Virgin Media admitted to implementing its traffic management policy during peak hours but insisted TV shows downloaded during this time period would take only a few minutes longer to download. Moreover, it “only focused on the heaviest downloaders and uploaders” on its network. Restrictions were put in place between 4 and 9pm and only affected customers who “downloaded an abnormal amount of data”.

The ASA said that only a small proportion of Virgin Media customers had been limited by its traffic management policy. However, customers on Virgin Media’s ‘M’ package could not download even one TV programme in peak time without download limits being imposed, whilst the Size: L package customers could download just two TV shows or 60 songs. The ASA has ruled that Virgin Media must mention the slower download times in its advertising. It also said that the number of downloads that triggered the traffic management policy could not be deemed “unreasonable usage” and therefore judged the advert to be misleading.

Virgin Media insisted that it never intended its advertising to be deceptive. “We believe our Hate to Wait campaign provided a simple and transparent comparison between broadband speeds for consumers looking to choose between Virgin Media’s M, L and XL broadband packages,” the company said in a statement.

Virgin Media also conceded it had incorrectly used the term “megabits” to quantify download times, and has agreed to change this to the correct term of “megabytes”. So, just to clarify: Mb = Megabits and MB = MegaBytes, and one MB = 8 Mb.

Well, it’s the first of July – pinch, punch, etc – and Tiscali were supposed to announce that they had found someone to take over their European broadband operations… Problem is, they’re still undecided on the sale of their business.

First of all, the offer made by the Carphone Warehouse was rejected outright by Tiscali, and then it looked as though Vodafone were going to step into the broadband market, which would have put them ahead of mobile rivals O2 and Orange by a considerable amount – then this deal was scuppered at the last minute, with no indication from either party as to why, or indeed what the future for Tiscali and it’s millions of UK subscribers was likely to be.

Tiscali had stated that they would have made an announcement by the end of June – it’s now July, and so far, nessuna risposta.