With the brand spankin’ new Hub 2.0 now available free on BT Broadband Options 2 and 3, those thinking of signing up for Option 1, but wanting to get in on the wireless action can now benefit from yet another BT Home Hub deal.

As part of a special deal exclusively available to customers who order online, those who sign up BT Option 1 will get the BT Home Hub version 1.5 (pictured) for free. In addition to this, BT are also bringing down the price of the Hub 2.0 for existing Option 1 punters to just £25; almost half the original price. So Option 1 home boys and girls hoping to sign up to the new Home Hub 2.0 can now do so for half the cost.

Improvements that the v2.0 Hub has over its predecessors include increased strength and range of the wireless signal, meaning that you can surf further away from the hub than before, and improved security measures – the new Hub uses WPA encryption as opposed to the older WEP security.

Remember that these deals are only available to customers who order online, and, although we’ve not received an end date from BT yet, you can be sure that these great offers aren’t going to last forever, so don’t wait around.

Virgin Media have revealed that it plans to offer ‘up to’ speeds of 200Mbps to UK customers by 2012, according to an interview with news agency Reuters. Virgin chief technology officer Howard Watson has revealed that the fibre providers plan to beat BT’s £1.5 billion broadband offering by double by the time the Olympics arrive in London:

“We are setting ourselves a vision of households using 200 Mb per second by 2012. The current technology that we’re investing in to roll out the 50 Mb per second over the next 12 months has inherent within it that extra capability,” Watson said, before saying how customer usage shifts dramatically once they realise they have some new bandwidth to play with:

“If you take a 20Mb customer [and upgrade them to 50Mb] on day one or two you might see a relatively small increase in usage but by day 60 or 65 they’re using 50 MB per second quite easily.”

Virgin haven’t mentioned anything as of yet about how much money they’re planning on putting into the pot to funds this, or how many UK homes would be able to get the super fast 200Mbps speeds, although an independent source tells us Virgin Media can only hope to get top speeds of 160Mbps out of their current network as it is, so it would seem that Virgin are going to have to start digging up the roads along with BT if this next-gen vision is to be a reality.

broadband connections are expected to reach 499 million by 2012 having risen from 323 million connections in 2007 according to Gartner Inc, equating to a 7% rise.

A survey found that in 5 countries 60% of households are already connected to broadband, and many others are set to follow, with a predicted 17 countries achieving 60% penetration or more by 2012. The five countries where over 60% of households are connected to broadband are Canada, the Netherlands, Switzerland, South Korea and Hong Kong. Countries with small populations or a government-backed broadband scheme have the advantage as far as broadband penetration is concerned. Moreover, the number of households with a broadband connection is likely to increase further.

“Depending on the specific market conditions, availability of Internet-enabled devices and the continued impact of broadband on consumer lifestyles, we expect some markets will have a broadband ceiling at 80 percent penetration or greater,” said Amanda Sabia, principal research analyst at Gartner.

Broadband penetration will increase, especially in the geographically larger markets, as current broadband providers continue to deploy their services, as newer technologies (wireless broadband, such as WiMAX) attract subscribers, and as users experience firsthand how speed enhances their Internet sessions” she added.

The six biggest ISPs in the UK have struck a deal with the government and the BPI to clamp down on illegal filesharing. The ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, or MoU, comes ahead of an announcement to be issued by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform later today, threatening ISPs with prosecution if they fail to tackle unlawful downloading of music and videos.

“We have looked to ISPs to acknowledge their responsibility to help deal with illegal file-sharing, engage in communicating the issue to their customers, and put in place procedures necessary to effectively tackle repeated unlawful file-sharing,” said a spokesperson for the BPI, the body that represents the British recorded music business.

Unsurprisingly, the list includes both BT and Virgin Media who have both already threatened to get medieval on errant customers. The four other signatories include Orange, Tiscali and Sky and the Carphone Warehouse - we were surprised to see that Charles Dunstone’s group had signed up, given that they had in the past told the BPI where to shove it with regard to adopting a three-strikes rule.

The new agreement sees ISPs adopting universal measures to deal with repeat offenders as well as a plan to commit to the development of more legal music download sites. The deal will involve providers sending warning letters to thousands of illegal downloaders telling them that their activities are being monitored and that they could face prosecution if they continue to flout the law. The crackdown is being hailed by the government as the “world’s first solution” agreed by the industry to tackle illegal file-sharing; it is estimated that last year alone around 6.5 million people in Britain downloaded files illegally.

Parents who receive the letters will be in for a shock, since many are unaware that their children have been downloading music, films and TV programmes illegally. They could be blacklisted and have their internet use curbed under the new plans. Households that ignore the warning letters could have their download speeds massively reduced, making it harder and more time-consuming to download large files, or even be blocked from using the internet altogether.

Concerns raised by this ruling include the prospect of subscribers having their wireless connections hacked and used by someone else for illegal downloads - under current proposals, this could see customers who are victims of pharming being held accountable for the illegal actions of others.

Orange are yet again to give away laptops for free, to users who sign up for their mobile broadband services for 24 months.

Customers who subscribe to a 24-month contract through Orange’s high-street shops or by phone will receive a free Asus Eee PC 900 16G (pictured) worth around £235, as well as a USB modem on Orange’s £25-per-month tariff called ‘Internet Everywhere.’ 100 free texts are included in the plan, as well as 3GB data usage.

An HP 6730s Intel Celeron laptop is available on the £35-a-month contract, and customers on the £40-a-month tariff will receive an HP 6730s Intel Core 2 Duo with an Orange USB dongle. Customers on the £45-per-month tariff will also receive an HP 6730s Intel Core 2 Duo with embedded SIM card. Hewlett-Packard will provide a choice of three laptops for businesses, which come with a 500 minute Wi-Fi allowance and a 5GB data policy.

Orange UK devices director François Mahieu said the operator plans to increase the number of laptops on offer in the future and bundle in fixed-line broadband on some packages: “Over time, we will be looking to expand our offering even further, with more suppliers who are at the forefront of laptop technology, making it even easier for our customers to connect to the internet seamlessly, whether it is for work or play.”

Broadband is helping to redefine the role of the modern sportsperson, as thousands of online gamers train to compete in the worldwide Digital Games in China this autumn.

In China digital gaming is immensely popular, with many internet cafes open right through the night to accommodate the many workers who “train” online in their spare time. For the first time this year the Digital World Games tournament will be an official affiliated event of the Olympic Games. Trails for the games have been held online from 11^th June, continuing until 27^th July, but the actual event will take place in Beijing in October.

“This will be the largest online video tournament yet,” says Ted Owen, chairman and chief executive of GGL Global Gaming, the largest social networking group for gamers worldwide, and an official sponsor of the event, hosted by the Chinese Government.

The tournament will use the most popular games consoles including the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PCs, and feature a whole range of sports games from NBA Live 08 and TrackMania racing games to real-time strategy games and first-person shooter games such as Counter-Strike 1.6 and Call of Duty.

Whilst many online athletes may not have the same toned physique as their traditional counterparts, they are often equally dedicated to training. 20-year-old gamer Patrick O’Day from San Fransisco works as a parking attendant during the day, but as soon as he hits home after his eight hour shift, he’s back on his XBox, often staying up as late as 3am to practise.

Broadband gaming has particularly taken off in the Far East, where gamers can enjoy speeds of up to 100Mbps.

Tiscali have begun legal proceedings against BT, after it was revealed this week that the UK’s leading internet service provider had mailed letters, containing “defamation and malicious falsehood” to Tiscali customers.

The letters, sent in the wake of the announcement earlier this year that Tiscali - currently the fourth biggest ISP in the UK - was searching for a buyer, cast doubts on the company’s future and advised customers to switch to a provider with a more stable long-term prospects, i.e. BT.

“We can understand why you’re wondering what might happen to your Tiscali broadband service,” the letters said. “And because no one really knows the answer just yet, it could be a good time to look for an alternative broadband service.”

BT have defended their actions saying that sending the letters to Tiscali customers was legitimate business practice: “Following media reports suggesting that Tiscali was up for sale we recently approached a number of Tiscali customers, and pointed out the benefits of our service. We believe this is a legitimate and reasonable business practice - comparative marketing is an important aspect of a competitive market.” Many are suspicious as to how BT obtained Tiscali’s customer information in the first place but BT insisted that it used “reputable external sources.”

The move by BT is just another example of the cut-throat nature of the consolidating UK comms market as ISPs try desperately to attract new customers and the top dogs try to stay on top. Arash Amel, an analyst with research group Screen Digest believes that as competition becomes tougher, only ISPs backed by big businesses such as Sky and Virgin Media can hope to survive in the long-term: “The standalone ISP business model is looking increasingly shaky… For every gigabyte of data customers use the bigger the costs for ISPs and their small profits start to disappear.”

Indeed; Tiscali last year bought Pipex, who had previously purchased Bulldog and Toucan - this swelled Tiscali’s total broadband consumer base to around 1.9 million. Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile phone network, was once touted as a possible buyer for Tiscali’s broadband services, which would have meant for further market consolidation, but negotiations reportedly dissolved at the last minute.

Three million BT Home Hubs have been sold since the wireless modem was launched in the UK two years ago, with many BT broadband subscribers opting for a more expensive subscription that includes the Home Hub above BT’s basic subscription package.

“The BT Home Hub has been developed through close co-operation between BT and Thomson,” said Steve Andrews, managing director of Strategy, Convergence and Products at BT. “We have now rolled out a very advanced and extremely practical offering, bringing together a group of features that have proved really popular, including IPTV, video on demand, and the ability to automatically transfer calls from a mobile phone to the fixed line to reduce call charges.”

Last week BT released its new Home Hub 2.0 which boasts twice the wireless range of routers from any other ISP in the UK. It also features a power-saving mode, child protection and a built-in firewall helping prevent viruses and unwanted intruders. The new Home Hub updates itself automatically with new features such as security updates. BT Home Hub 2.0 is available free to all new customers who sign up to BT broadband Option 2 or Option 3 online. Existing customers can get the wireless router for £45.

Readers ought to remember that though people seem to get all misty eyed when they think of Tokyo and Seoul and their 100Mbps speeds, the reality of the situation is that your average Japanese or Korean user enjoys downstream speeds of 40Mbps, which is what we should sensibly hope to expect when BT begin pumping fibre to the homes of 10 million UK residents over the next three and a half years.

Bearing this in mind, BT’s fibre plan has, somewhat predictably, been criticised for being obsolete out of the box. It is believed that by 2012, when rollout of the £1.5bn network is due to be completed, Tokyo, Seoul and Paris will each have ploughed more cash into their broadband infrastructures, suggesting that us in the UK will carry on playing catch-up with the rest of the world in terms of download speeds.

“This announcement will not take us ahead of Korea or Japan,” a BT spokesman conceded today, but “over the next few years, it will enable some very high speeds, as high as anywhere else.” In an open letter to the Financial Times, IT researchers at TNS Technology said that “the UK will remain a second-tier country when it comes to internet speeds.”

That said, it’s worth considering that BT have whispered that once laid, their cable network will be able to pump out even faster speeds provided the requisite upgrades in the future are made. Consider that the comparatively old cable networks of NTL and Telewest inherited by Virgin Media will soon be kicking out top download speeds approaching 50Mbps, and that Virgin are apparently planning on introducing 300Mbps downstream speeds in the not too distant future.

BT’s plans to connect 40 per cent of UK homes with next-gen fibre optic services by 2012 have prompted this response from Virgin Media, who are currently the sole providers of residential fibre optic broadband services.

James Kydd, Virgin’s MD of Marketing and Brand last week had this to say about the BT’s big announcement:

“We’ve long believed that super-fast broadband is what people want and we’re not surprised some of our competitors are now trying to play catch up. We’ve already invested £13 billion in a fibre-optic network and the launch of our 50Mb product later this year will mean 12 million UK consumers won’t have to wait to get access to next generation broadband.

Our 50Mb trialists have already experienced the power of superfast broadband and we’re excited that we will soon be able to offer this to millions of UK homes.” Virgin Media are also reportedly investing in DOCSIS3.0 technology which would theoretically allow them to provide downstream speeds of over 300Mbps.

ADSL2+ speed kings O2 Broadband have also announced plans to pipe fibre to UK homes, should Ofcom guarantee that networks are not opened up under any kind of Openreach/LLU program. “We need clear and unambiguous regulation in place before we start shelling out huge sums of money,” said O2’s spokesperson last week.