BT blow the dust off of their digital vault

As well as recently tarting up the Home Hub in black for the mall punk crowd, BT have recently launched an ad campaign reminding their broadband customers of the free webspace that can be used to back up important files, holiday snaps, and the like in the event of a computer crash. The ad is part of the ongoing series of skits starring Kris Marshall and Esther Hall.

BT’s free Digital Vault service provides all BT broadband customers with 5GB of encrypted webspace where you can upload important documents for safekeeping. 5GB may not be a huge amount, but if you’re only planning on storing a handful of files is might be worth considering.

Alternatively, if you do need additional space, BT also provide customers with a meatier 20GB of storage capacity is available for an additional monthly fee of £5, so users who don’t have their entire music collection backed up on CD have some extra space for any iTunes files they’ve downloaded – nothing is more annoying than paying for a legal download only to have it lost when your computer breaks down. One of the many reasons why vinyl is the superior audio format, but that’s a different kettle of fish…

With more and more ISPs offering basic services which rival BT in terms of cost, the current top broadband dog needs to continue with ad campaigns like this to make potential customers aware of their full range of services and how they can benefit people.

BT ‘Limited Edition’ Black Hub

BT have given their hugely successful and ubiquitous Home Hub a ‘limited edition’ make-over. Available only to online customers, this sleek and stylish home hub has all the features of the standard Home Hub box, but is instead encased in an ultra-cool reflective black casing with neon green display icons making it look like a prop from The Matrix, as opposed to the shiny iPod-white vanilla version.

The futuristic black Home Hub, included free with BT Total Broadband Options 2 and 3, can now sit neatly next to your tweaked Dell XPS gaming desktop or your Xbox 360 and not look as incongruous as its white companion. The Hub Phone, which is included with Option 3 has also been given the goth makeover, resplendent in a new shiny black casing.

The Black Hub was made available to order from BT’s website on Sunday, presumably to go with the black mood that all smokers across England were in as they realized that another minor civil liberty had been consigned to the scrapheap.

Virgin approached and offered a nine-figure sum

Virgin Media have confirmed it has received a takeover approach and that it is considering a potential sale. It has not yet been revealed who the potential buyer is, but all fingers are pointing at private equity group Carlyle, who also own the US cable network Insight.

The private equity firm is understood to have made an offer of more than £5.5 billion for the cable group which is said to be keen on the idea of a takeover, which would certainly provide the firm with a larger spending budget for the up and coming Virgin 1 channel.

Despite recent promising figures, Virgin Media’s first year of operations has been less than stellar. The loss of Sky channels saw massive customer migration which was exacerbated by changes such as bandwidth throttling in busy areas and the introduction of premium rate charges for technical support helplines.

Talk2 the Broadband

TalkTalk have just announced a repricing of their broadband service, now available with the Talk2 International plan, which costs £5.89 a month for a landline service (with inclusive evening and weekend calls) plus £10.50 a month for line rental, bringing the total monthly cost down to £16.39.

“Many customers tell us they don’t use their home phone during the day, so we’ve come up with something for people who make landline calls when they get home from work and at the weekends,” said David Thatcher, TalkTalk MD.

TalkTalk have also recently introduced free calls to 30 international numbers and have lowered the cost of line rental. Those who benefit from the Anytime call package which comes with the Talk3 plan will also see their monthly bill reduced from £29.99 to £20.49.