Eclipse Internet gives Control to customers

Award winning Eclipse Internet are about to launch a revolutionary new feature for their broadband customers.

The about-to-be-launched Eclipse Control Panel allows users to manage their traffic and optimise specific applications, so if you mainly use the net for email, you can tweak your settings accordingly. The press release from Eclipse claims that connections can be configured in order to optimise “web browsing, email, peer-to-peer, FTP, VPN and gaming.”

“The new services give customers access to the tools to let them do this for themselves, via the Eclipse Control Panel,” says the release. “The view from Eclipse is that customers know better than anyone else what they want from their broadband service, so why not let them control it?”

This news comes on the eve of some price adjustments to the Eclipse residential and business broadband packages – more on this as we get it.

Bournemouth to get Broadband via the U-Bend

The sunny Dorset town of Bournemouth, famed for it beaches, golf courses and many hills, is to become the first UK town to get next-gen Dark Fibre broadband access.

More than 88,000 homes and businesses in the coastal town will benefit from eye wateringly fast speeds of up to 100Mbps (megabits per second) in the next six months under the £30 million scheme, which has been undertaken by Dark Fibre specialists H20 Networks, whose activities we’ve been chronicling on this very blog.

Elfed Thomas, CEO of H20 said: “This is just the start of bringing next generation connectivity to the UK… Many households and broadband customers in the UK have insufficient connectivity bandwidths because they are attached to legacy networks deployed in the 20th Century that just can’t cope with demand.”

Dark Fibre is the term used to describe the method of fibre-optic cable access that is delivered to kerbside clusters via the existing sewer network.

May Day, May Day: TalkTalk Bank Holiday Promotion

Bank holidays are usually rubbish – the roads are congested because everyone is trying to go somewhere, the already woeful public transport runs a skeleton Sunday service, and half of the places you’d want to go to are shut.

However, those thinking about signing up with TalkTalk broadband ought to hold their horses til tomorrow; TalkTalk are offering to waive the £29.99 connection charge for customers who sign up online over the May Day bank holiday weekend – that’s the 3rd, 4th, and 5th May 2008.

This means that the overall annual cost of the Talk2 Broadband service shrinks to just over £70, with the Talk3 Broadband deal dropping to under £120 (not including line rental). Those interested in this holiday opportunity should know that the deal ends early Monday morning; 9am on the 6th of May.

Orange and O2 Mobile Broadband is Go

Leading mobile networks and broadband providers Orange and O2 have finally moved in on the mobile broadband market, following on from T-Mobile, Vodafone and 3.

Both companies are punting mobile surfing to users, allowing them to connect to the net on the move by way of a plug and play USB dongle. Both of the packages offer customers 3GB worth of monthly surfing over their networks, with the O2 packages including unlimited Wi-Fi access via The Cloud’s 7,500 UK hotspots.

O2 Mobile Broadband automatically hooks users up to the fastest connection available – GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA, or Wi-Fi, and the plug and play aspect of the USB dongle makes it super easy to use. The dongle also comes with a stylish LED display panel which indicates what network is being used, so you’ll be able to easily estimate what speed you should be getting. Talking of which, for the moment broadband speeds of O2 Mobile Broadband will be around 1.8Mbps, which O2 plan to accelerate speeds to a faster average of 3.6Mbps this June. Orange Mobile Broadband also comes with speeds of up to 1.8Mbps, although there have been no official noises on speed increases yet. However, Orange has the edge over O2 in terms of cost.

There are two separate price plans available on O2, a £20 a month 18 month contract, which includes the price of the USB dongle, or a rolling monthly package also costing £20 a month, plus a one-off charge for the dongle (£120). Orange, by contrast only have one price plan, and 18-monther which costs users just £15 a month, significantly cheaper over a year and half when compared with the O2 equivalent; the price of the Orange USB dongle is also included in the price.

Happy House: O2 Bring Broadband Home

From today, O2 Home Broadband is available in all homes throughout the UK, thanks to a deal inked with BT which allows O2 to supply broadband to customers using both their own and BT’s wholesale network, allowing O2 Pay Monthly mobile subscribers everywhere to take advantage of discounts off the cost of next-gen broadband. O2 will still continue to install equipment in BT exchanges through Be Broadband, but for now, this venture means that punters who have wanted to sign up with O2 Broadband can do so.

To make punters aware of the nationwide availability of the service, O2 are launching a high visibility £6 million ad campaign. The new campaign, dubbed “Happy Homes” will feature on TV, in papers and posters and on trains and tubes. The print ads feature a series of houses with strategically positioned windows, doors and fences to create the impression that the buildings are smiling.

O2′s Home Broadband Access package will cost from £17.50 per month for O2 customers, representing excellent value for customers when compared to similar services delivered over BT’s wholesale network by competitor providers. Prices for O2 Home Broadband delivered over O2′s own LLU network start from £7.50 per month for O2 customers.

Al O2 customers can benefit from free UK-based tech support and customer service, unlimited downloads, free connection and wireless kit and no connection fees.