Good things come to those who wait?

It appears certain that mobile phone network operator O2, who wholly own Be Broadband, plan on releasing a converged mobile/broadband service later this year – we just don’t know exactly when.

The firm have been somewhat sketchy on the details, although Matthew Key, chief executive officer of O2 UK has in the past stated that they “don’t think of broadband as just something to throw in for free. Proper broadband takes continual innovation and focus.”

With consumers becoming increasingly wary of converged services offering ‘free’ broadband, O2′s strategy if holding its cards close to its chest seems wise, for now. Key said: “Customers are rebelling against free broadband. They associate free with substandard.”

As of February this year, Be Broadband – which currently offers the fastest connections speed in the market – unbundled equipment in its 500th exchange, increasing their coverage of the country to just over a third. Key said at the time that “We are working at unbundling 200 more exchanges by June and we are already testing new technologies that will enhance the network and our speed.”

Be Broadband said it is on target to unbundle in 833 exchanges by the end of the summer, which will then mean that their network footprint will cover over 50% of the population of the UK.

If O2 decide to unveil a converged service when this target is achieved, it will put them somewhat behind Virgin Media (whose cable network currently covers 80% of the UK) and Sky, who have now unbundled in close to 900 exchanges. But faster speeds and an emphasis on a better quality of service may mean that O2/Be may emerge as a prominent player on the market by the end of the summer.

Smaller ISPs come out on top in industry survey

Eclipse and Be Broadband topped a poll for reliability and speed connection in survey carried out between comparison site Moneysupermarket.com and the market research team YouGov.

The findings of the survey which asked over 4,000 people was released last month and showed that the four overall best ISP were Be Broadband, Eclipse, NamesCo and Madasafish, each receiving scores of nine out of ten. Bigger names such as Orange, Sky, Tiscali and TalkTalk were ranked among the lowest.

Jason Lloyd, head of broadband for Moneysupermarket.com said that the larger companies are losing out by placing too much faith in promotion rather than service. He says that, by contrast; “[the] smaller companies place far greater emphasis on customer retention. Their customers often enjoy the highest service levels within the industry.”

Be Broadband were praised in the ISPA awards tow months ago for introducing record-breaking Broadband speeds to the market, and Eclipse scooped the prestigious Best Consumer Broadband award.

A spokesperson for Sky has this to say in defense: “Sky is one of the UK’s fastest growing broadband providers. On average, our customers save more than £120 a year and enjoy download speeds twice as fast as their previous supplier. In fact, independent tests rank Sky as the second fastest broadband provider in the country.”

Whilst the Sky Max package does indeed boast a top connection speed of 16Mbps, twice as fast as the current average 8Mbps speed, other ISPs including Be, UK Online and Virgin Media can provide speed in excess of this. Hopefully surveys like this will cause the bigger players to examine their services before they commit to length and expensive marketing campaigns.

Geek Squad ride to the rescue of Carphone Warehouse customers

Despite enjoying a position as the 3rd largest supplier in the market, poised modestly behind Virgin Media and BT (second and first place respectively), Carphone Warehouse – the mobile phone retailer which owns AOL‘s UK services and provides ‘free’ Broadband access to TalkTalk subscribers – has had something of a rough ride ever since its emergence on the ISP scene in April last year.

Charles Dunstone, chief executive of Carphone Warehouse has stated that the free Broadband fiasco had been a logistical “nightmare”, and it has been acknowledged by many that the company underestimated the demand for fast net access.

However the firm remain confident that sales will pick up. Aside for hiring hundreds of extra staff members, the mobile retailer is also preparing to restore public faith in its services by launching a home tech support service, the Geek Squad, based on the American service of the same name.

The original Geek Squad was founded by Robert Stevens of Minneapolis who paid for his college fees by fixing friends computers for cash. Dunstone, hoping to cash in on brand loyalty has proudly declared that, “Geek Squad is the Coca-Cola of tech support, and we wanted the authentic product.”

The moped-mounted Geek Squad answer home calls to help with problems such as installation, viruses, recovering lost files, and offer other educational services such as tutorials on Word and PowerPoint for those who are less than computer confident. A home call costs £99.99, which seems steep, but there is no fixed time limit, and if the problem can’t be fixed there and then, there is no charge.

The current 20 members of the Geek Squad operate in areas around the M25, but there are plans recruit more to the cause, and extend the service to all major cities in the UK within the year.

As the fastest-connection-speed Broadband battle continues, ISPs that aren’t directly affiliated with phone networks or large media companies are looking at other ways to improve the quality of their services and attract more customers. Offering help and direct human contact to customers who are frustrated and fed up with talking to answer machines and technicians over the phone could prove to be a big plus in terms of TalkTalk’s appeal.