BT have announced that all weekend calls to local and national UK numbers in a bid to maintain its position at the top of the telephone and broadband pile.
However, whilst inclusive weekend calls are now included across the board, the costs for weekday calls is set to shoot up. Broadband customers could also be affected by the price of line rental, set to go up to £11.75 a month for those who want a paper bill, although customers who forgo itemised billing pay £10.50 instead.
Customers can of course get free weekday evening calls with BT Broadband Talk, provided that they have a Home Hub, Hub Phone, or any other kind of touch tone handset.
Posted by Tom on February 29th 2008 in BT Broadband
Apparently not content with the recent ruling which could potentially see rivals Sky taking a multi million pound hit, Virgin Media are to appeal against the recent decision taken by the Business Secretary which sees Sky cutting the size of their stake in ITV to 7.5 per cent; Virgin believe that Sky would still have too much influence over ITV even at a reduced level:
Virgin said in a statement that “the Competition Commission has made significant errors in interpreting and applying” the rules of the Enterprise Act of 2003, and that “If not corrected, this error will undermine the future efficacy and objectives” of the act.
Meanwhile, Sky have submitted their own challenge to the ruling, arguing that the case was founded “on a series of implausible hypotheses” and that “competition in this marketplace is as vigorous as ever – a merger has not taken place, Sky and ITV are distinct entities with independent strategies and Sky could not block a shareholder resolution without voting rights.”
Sky will argue that because the size of their current stake, 17.9 per cent, is too small to constitute a takeover, the Competition Commission should not have got involved. Sky apparently offered to rid itself of any voting rights on the ITV board via a trust, but this measure was rejected by the commission. Sky had offered to either place shares in a voting trust, or agree to not exercising its voting rights, described by the commission as a “behavioural remedy”, which was ultimately rejected.
Posted by Tom on February 26th 2008 in Sky Broadband, Virgin Media
Virgin Media are offering their start up 2Mbps Size: M broadband on its own for just £10 a month as part of a new promotion. Customers taking out the Size: M package get £10 broadband for the first six months, after which it reverts to the standard price of £18, saving new customers nearly £50 off of the first year of broadband services.
Price cuts are also in effect for those interested in signing up for the 4Mbps Size: L or 20Mbps Size: XL packages, with the services costing £17 and £29 per month respectively, with the rate reverting back to the standard £25 and £37 per month after the first six months.
This falls in line with Virgin’s previously announced plans to put broadband at the front of their four-play roster; in the last six months, we’ve seen Virgin trialling next gen 50Mbps cable broadband, and preparing to accelerate the top speed of the Size: L package from 4Mbps to 10Mbps.
Posted by Tom on February 26th 2008 in Virgin Media
The circle is now complete. In the heady days of 1981, BT was split off from the parent GPO. Now, the Post Office is punting broadband services alongside its former protégé in a twist of fate, much like the confrontation of Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi on the deck of the Death Star.
The Post Office realise that the stalls are largely set out against them, and so have a lot of work to do in terms of winning customers round. Whilst they cannot offer attractive secondary services such as digital TV and mobile calls, they have come up with some pretty sweet bundle deals.
Their two broadband products, Broadband Standard and Broadband Extra, listed here on their own, can come combined with a number of attractive call packages, some of which allow customers to make free calls to other Post Office customers – we’ll be featuring their call and broadband bundle packages in greater detail in the weeks to come.
Posted by Tom on February 20th 2008 in BT Broadband, Post Office Broadband
As of this Friday, O2 will be offering their discounted broadband service to customers on Pay as You Go tariffs, and not just Pay Monthly contract punters. Currently, customers on an O2 mobile phone contract qualify for £5 off the monthly asking price for their three unlimited broadband services.
Under the new scheme, O2 mobile customers on a prepay contract will be eligible for the same discount if they top up their mobile by the minimum amount of just £10 a month in the 3 months before their broadband bill is generated, otherwise they will be charged the higher rate.
Existing O2 customers on a prepay tariff who have O2 Broadband will automatically receive the discount with their next bill.
The packages for O2 customers are charged follows:
Standard (up to 8Mbps) - £7.50 per month
Premium (up to 16Mbps) - £10.00 per month
Ultimate (up to 20Mbps) - £15.00 per month
Posted by Tom on February 18th 2008 in O2 Broadband
It appears that O2 plan to match Tiscali’s new business SME packages that the Italian Stallion has just launched through Pipex. A new fixed-line broadband service will offer small and medium-sized businesses ADSL2+ download speeds, mirroring the Business Pro package available from O2 stablemates Be.
O2 also have plans to upgrade of its HSDPA based mobile broadband network to increase the maximum download speed to 10.2Mbps, beating mobile rival Vodafone’s 7.2Mbps service available with the popular Vodafone Stick.
Posted by Tom on February 13th 2008 in Be Broadband, Broadband, O2 Broadband, Pipex, Tiscali
Tiscali has axed the “king of the internet” David Hasselhoff ad campaigns, for its subsidiary Pipex, as prepares to rebrand the Pipex arm of its network to specifically target SME customers.
Tiscali have launched a range of ADSL2+ packages specifically for small businesses, and have also launched Pipex Business Portal, a one-stop resource page combining a Google-enhanced search engine, along with useful tools such as glossaries and databases of legal, marketing and HR contacts, a tax calculator and a currency converter.
Neal McCleave, the managing director of media services at Tiscali, said that the company has high hopes that the Pipex Portal will become the “the home page of many small businesses”.
Posted by Tom on February 12th 2008 in Pipex, Tiscali
BT Broadband are now offering the Home Hub to all their customers. The wireless router that was originally only available to Option 1 punters for a flat £30 fee is now included free, a la Options 2 and 3.
The BT Home Hub, one of the most widely used routers in the UK, is a multi-purpose piece of hardware which not only allows customers to connect to the net, but is also essential for the BT Vision digital TV service, online console gaming and wireless home networking.
Since the launch of the BT Home Hub, we have seen a limited edition black version released along with a newer slimline ‘1.5′ version, which comes with a sleeker chassis and a more user friendly security interface.
BT have recently inked a deal with Microsoft which will allow Xbox 360 gamers to hook up their console to the Home Hub and use their games machine as a BT Vision set top box, further enhancing the home entertainment capabilities of the games machine.
Posted by Tom on February 5th 2008 in BT Broadband
Virgin Media are currently undertaking major upgrades to their services which will see customers on the Size: L cable broadband package being able to benefit from an update which will accelerate the maximum theoretical speed of 4Mbps to 10Mbps. This follows on from last year’s Size: XL speed boost which saw the basic up to 10Mbps service being boosted to a new 20Mbps top speed.
The upgrade will be available free to all customers on the Size: L package, and will happen automatically – those eligible for an upgrade will receive an information pack through the post. Rollout of the new service will happen on a region by region basis, so that any early teething problems with upgrading can be ironed out. The process is due to start at the end of the month, and according to Virgin, “should be complete end of summer.”
Acting CEO of Virgin Media, Neil Berkett said: “Virgin Media’s cable network gives us a natural superiority over other broadband services and we’re delighted to reward our customers with this free upgrade. We’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s possible with our cable network, and we will continue to look for new ways to satisfy the growing demand for even faster broadband in the UK.”
Virgin Media has also decided to make their 50Mbps package available to the rest of the UK by the end of the year.
Posted by Tom on February 5th 2008 in Virgin Media
An article on H2O Networks published yesterday in the Scotland on Sunday revealed how the Dark Fibre company plan to unroll leased FTTK lines to ISPs operating in Dundee once their network is in place.
The piece says how residents living in the City of Discovery will be able to sign up for high speed broadband services “through an internet service provider such as BT, Sky, or Virgin Media, who will rent access to the lines from H2O.”
H2O estimate that cabling a town of 75,000 people can be done for as little as £10m, compared with the £70m it could cost if roads and pavements had to be dug up. However, the population of Dundee and its surrounding towns and villages is more than double that figure, so by their own reckoning H2O would be looking at a total cost in excess of £20m.
The article also says how H2O would have to dig up the final few metres of road from a sewer cabinet to the premises home to connect the service and that this “could cost £10 to £50 a metre.”
An H2O spokeswoman said: “We are in talks with various agencies and Dundee will definitely be the first place in Scotland to get it, the only question is whether it will be the first place in the UK to receive it.”
Posted by Tom on February 4th 2008 in BT Broadband, Next Gen Broadband, Sky Broadband, Virgin Media
