Customer suspicion of Broadband with free phone calls/mobile contracts/digital TV/Faberge egg has been high since last year’s TalkTalk/Carphone Warehouse farce – now Orange, one of the more popular providers currently holding fort between tier-1 and tier-2 territory (having plateaued at around 300 unbundled lines) are breaking with the code of practice set out by ISP trade association and consumer group ISPA.

Any ISP who wishes to become a member of ISPA has to ensure that their business practices fall in line with the codes and conventions of the association, codes which are set up to ensure that disputes are resolved fairly and customers can’t be shafted.

Orange’s line is that Broadband internet should be considered by their customers to be a free addition to a mobile contract, and not the other way around. Ergo, as Orange are primarily providers of a mobile phone service and not an internet service, their codes of practice should not be regulated by an internet trade panel.

Orange have said that customers can refer any complaints to CISAS – the Communications & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme – a body which acts as an arbitrator in consumer/corporation quarrels, if an issue cannot be resolved after three months. By contrast, a disgruntled customer is free to contact the ISPA if their ISP cannot sort the problem out after 10 days.

Customers have become increasingly less enamoured by the offer of free Broadband services from providers who aren’t chiefly ISP’s. With the ability to register complaints now obscured and lengthened by this move, Orange have made the offer of their services to new customers less attractive than before.

Virgin Media has submitted claims of rival TV/broadband operator Sky abusing its ‘dominant position’ to the High Court. The 33-page document states that Sky asked for a 70% hike on carriage fees for the channels - including Sky One, Sky News and Sky Sports - which were withdrawn from the cable platform on the 1st of March.

This, Virgin says, would have seen Sky receiving a sum roughly equivalent to more than 20 times the initial fee that Sky had agreed on. Virgin also claim that Sky strong-armed them into receiving less money for the broadcasting rights to channels including Bravo and Living TV – channels owned by Virgin Media.

Sky have been quick to dismiss the claim; a Sky spokesperson responded by saying: ”Virgin Media’s claim is without foundation and reinforces our view that their case as a whole is misconceived. Sky will file its response with the High Court in due course.”

Virgin and Sky have been trading statements about figures and their veracity, with each side quick to rubbish claims made by the other. Amid the spin doctorisms and press releases, it is unclear as to which side is telling the ‘truth’.

Sky also urged Virgin to renegotiate at the last minute, but again, it is unclear if this was an attempt to halt court proceedings, and therefore an admission of guilt, or if it was a genuine olive branch from the satellite giant.

Whilst courtroom nose-thumbing continues, the battle has spilled out into the high street, with the two rival TV platforms now competing for sales in electronic goods retailers Currys. The Dixons Stores Group (DSG) is the first UK retail chain to supply both services to customers.

Typically, Currys aren’t favoring either side. “It will be fascinating to observe the contest between two exceptional products and brands,” says Gemma Winfield, digital services marketing and buying manager at Currys, adding that “[b]oth packages represent superlative value for money, but both have different strengths to suit customers’ lifestyles and requirements.”

Sky certainly offer a cheaper bundled deal than Virgin – TV, Phone and Broadband for £26 a month, the nearest similar Virgin deal costs £30 a month for the same services which gives you Broadband Size: M which has a top speed of 2Mbps, as opposed to the Sky Broadband Mid package included in See, Speak, Surf which has a maximum speed of 8Mbps.

Virgin Media have an edge over Sky in terms of the free mobile minutes offered by their bundled deals, and Virgin customers also do not have to pay BT line rental – unlike Sky customers – as phone calls are made over the cable network, which is owned by Virgin.

The security of residential wireless networks in the house has been thrown into question after police have arrested two people who were caught stealing people’s bandwidth in the streets.

The two arrests, made in the same area of Worcestershire, but apparently unconnected, were made after residents spotted people sitting in parked cars using wireless-enabled laptops, to ‘piggyback’ someone else’s Broadband connection for free.

There has been much debate about this practice, also called ‘leeching’ and ‘mooching’ which has been spotted in Canada and the US. As well as stealing effectively what is someone else’s property, the implications of piggybacking are more severe than just petty bandwidth theft – a piggybacker could use a wireless network to steal bank details, or download illegal material such as music files or pornography, for which the owner of the connection could be prosecuted and fined for something they haven’t done.

Typically, piggybackers will access the wireless signal from a roadside, as glass does not impede the radiowaves in the same way that masonry and brickwork does – it is not yet known if lead-lined panes in stately homes can block the signal.

This is a problem for customers, households with multiple users in particular, who want to sign up for the obvious advantages provided by a wireless connection.

Programs specifically designed to counter drive-by piggybacking include McAfee’s Wireless Home Network Security 2006 and Zone Labs’ ZoneAlarm Wireless Security; most of these programs are compatible with the wireless routers that come with the Sky, Be, Eclipse, etc.

BT’s Home Hub and the Orange Livebox both come with their own pre-configured wireless security measures which automatically secure all connections within the radius of the signal with a login name and password set by the user – anyone trying to leech your signal from the outside will need to know these security details.

Police from the West Mercia Constabulary are reminding people to be vigilant when setting up wireless networks in their own home, and are encouraging people to purchase or set up security setting as soon as possible, lest they have their Broadband connection compromise and be used for illegal purposes for which they could see themselves getting charged for.

PlusNet has recently revamped its services, repriced and rebranded its Broadband packages. After a shaky period last year, where the ISP attracted a fair share of criticism for substandard customer service, connection delays, and all-round bad performance, PlusNet, now owned by BT, seem to be determined to win back the reputation they once enjoyed.

Aside from offering now-standard speeds of 8Mbps, and clearly defined download caps of up to 40GB, PlusNet are also offering customers a unique unlimited overnight usage policy - anything that is downloaded between the hours of 12am and 8am doesn’t count towards your monthly limit.

“We want to encourage people to use it overnight when the network is empty but paid for. It’s zero cost to us to offer that for customers for use of non-quality-specific functions like downloading,” says PlusNet product director Neil Armstrong.

Speaking of monthly limits, there is no set length of contract – all the packages run for one month, which is much more flexible than a 12 or 18 month straitjacket, although whilst PlusNet do not charge mandatory activation fees for new or migrating Broadband customers, this is conditional on customers staying with them for 12 months.

Also - and this is a real plus - customers who stray over their monthly limit, unintentionally or not, customers can opt to either pay an extra £1 for every extra GB over the limit they go, or choose to have their speed temporarily reduced. The extra option to customise monthly caps for an additional 75p per GB per month is surely a welcome change to the punitive measures doled out to customers by other ISPs.

PlusNet seem keen to differentiate themselves from the bigger companies who try to hook customers in with offers of free secondary services, or Broadband as a freebie alongside one of their parent services.

Echoing O2 UK CEO Matthew Key, in lieu of a converged O2/Be service, said that customers “associate free [Broadband] with substandard,” albeit in a more colourful fashion, Armstrong said that “sensible people know ‘free’ is b*ll*cks,” and that PlusNet’s “aim is to be the best tier 2 provider,” referring to the ever-shrinking state of the UK Broadband market and it’s crowding out by larger ISPs – tier 1’s by definition here.

Being owned and partially funded by the biggest tier 1 of them all – BT – can’t hurt, especially when plans to give PlusNet customers access to the BT Home Hub, and free Wi-Fi minutes, along with other plans to introduce a faster ADSL 2+ service which promises speeds of 24Mbps.

Needless to say, PlusNet’s assisted re-entry into the market with new flexible packages and greater freedom of use, may see customers having the last laugh as the big tier 1’s battle it out with expensive ad campaigns and offers of substandard ‘free’ services.

The Broadband Stakeholders Group, an industry/government advisory group, has stated that Broadband services need to speed up in order to keep up with the growing consumer and business demand for faster online surfing. The economy may suffer if by 2012, UK businesses, especially UK-based online retailers such as Play.com, are unable to process and send information quickly.

“If steps are not taken [by 2009] to prepare for next-generation broadband, then we may well find ourselves in a position where it is too late to catch up,” said BSG chairman Kip Meek in the Financial Times.

Virgin Media has already announced its plan to upgrade its 10Mbps Size: XL Broadband service customers to 20Mbps, while BT have been quietly setting up their 21st Century Network, the digital network that will eventually replace the existing copperwire lines, which will allow for much faster connection speeds.

Last October, a post on Samknows.com - The Broadband Resource - stated that BT’s 21C Network will be up and running in Cardiff before it is rolled out over the rest of the country, with the rest of the UK to be fully connected by the end of 2011.

ISPs such as UK Online and Be have made use of ADSL 2+ technology, which allows them to sell Broadband services with faster than average connections speeds of 22Mbps and 24Mbps.

Tiscali are currently offering an Anytime Talk plan – free UK phone calls – alongside their premium 8Mbps Broadband package to new customers who sign up before the 16th of April.

The Unlimited 8MB service from Tiscali, which provides fast net access with no specified download limit, usually comes with free weekend phonecalls included – for the same monthly price as this – £17.99 – new customers can now sign up for free calls throughout the week and at any time of day.

The ever-greying area between mobile phones and the internet is set to get a little bit greyer with Orange announcing plans to offer their mobile customers exclusive access to the online social networking site Bebo.

Bebo, which has over 31 million members and features exclusive music, film and TV content, is one of the most widely used social networking websites on the web. Orange has over 15 million customers in the UK, and will be undoubtedly keen to stress the possibilities of taking pictures and films with friends on an Orange Unique phone, and transferring the data straight onto Bebo’s webspace via a wireless Livebox connection to a home computer.

Recently it has also been announced that mobile phone network Vodafone have announced a similar deal with Myspace, and Sky recently unveiled a beta version SkyCast, an online video sharing venture in partnership with Google.

So far the Bebo/Orange deal is exclusive, but many predict that other popular networking sites may provide members with mobile access from a multitude of providers – so a possible O2/Facebook/Be Broadband amalgam could be heading your way this summer.

It seems that Carphone Warehouse are the only ones left interested in taking over Pipex after reports that interest from BT, Sky, and Virgin has fizzled out. Charles Dunstone, CW CEO has said that a takeover is still on the cards, but is “not high up our list of priorities.”

Carphone Warehouse have recently stated that problems with Talk Talk last year are set to eat heavily into their profits, as much as £10 or £15 million. Pipex is currently valued at around £350 million, so the firm may not yet commit to a purchase.

Buying Pipex would mean that Carphone Warehouse, would add over half a million customers to the 2.28 million it currently services through TalkTalk and AOL, and strengthen its position as the 3rd largest provider of Broadband in the UK, behind BT and Virgin who supply Broadband to approximately 3.2 million customers each.

Virgin Media are offering ADSL customers extra incentive to sign up to their 8MB Broadband service by way of free digital TV.

‘Virgin Free TV’, a Freeview-esque service gives viewers 40+ free-to-air digital TV channels as well as over 25 digital radio stations received via a small black set-top box, roughly the same size as a VHS cassette tape.

This allows potential Virgin customers who are currently not covered by the cable footprint to take advantage of the great savings enjoyed by other Virgin Media customers, meaning that Virgin’s much touted Quad Play is now available to practically everyone.

Virgin Media’s Philip Snalune is quoted saying: “Launching a basic TV service into non-cable areas enables us to expand availability of our quadplay of broadband, phone, mobile and TV.

Those who sign up for the Plan 2 Broadband package (8Mbps speed, Unlimited downloads) combined with the Talk Anytime landline plan, can also enjoy free non-subscription digital TV for a one-off fee of £40.

Snalune also said that “This is just the first step and our aim is to offer more advanced TV services in all areas throughout 2008.” This could be taken to mean that Virgin are planning to launch an on-demand IPTV service a la Sky Anytime, Tiscali TV and BT Vision – or it could not.
Virgin Free TV is a welcome addition for customers who felt like Virgin’s ADSL deal was lacking a certain something.

Virgin Media, who had previously threatened Sky with legal action after the dispute over carriage fees for their channels, are expected to issue a writ to the High Court sometime this week.

Sky pulled a selection of their channels from Virgin Media’s cable TV package in March, after the two companies failed to agree on a price for the channels; Virgin said that Sky were asking for over double the amount of the previous deal – a claim emphatically denied – and stated that that they would take Sky to court in 30 days if an agreement could not be reached.

Virgin’s statement in March read: “Following Sky’s withdrawal of its basic channels from Virgin Media’s TV service, Virgin Media has formally advised Sky that it will pursue action in the high court if their carriage disputes are not resolved within 30 days.”

Since then, Virgin have introduced faster cable broadband speeds, a free digital TV set-top box for ADSL customers, and have petitioned Ofcom to scrutinize the converged pay-TV/broadband market in an attempt to make life difficult for Sky.

Sky have hit back with a high-profile advertisements mocking Virgin’s reduced TV service and are prepared for a lengthy legal battle, dismissing the possibility of court action as a part of a perceived Virgin Media “PR Campaign” to portray Sky as a bullying conglomerate.