Be Broadband offers customers 40Mbps speed trial

Broadband provider Be Broadband is offering existing customers ultra-fast downloads for a trial period using a new line-bonding technology that could bring speeds of up to 40Mbps.

The 30-day trial is open to all current Be Broadband customers including a large number of online gamers who are likely to benefit greatly from this speed increase. Participants could receive broadband speeds of up to 40Mbps, although this will verymuch depend on the customer’s current connection speed, as well as the length and quality of the ASDL lines. The faster connection will be achieved by combining two telephone lines via a single ADSL2+ router, harnessing the strength of two lines to get a single broadband connection.

To be considered for the trial, current Be Broadband customers must apply to the ISP before Friday 26th September. Contact Be on 020 7479 5029 or email them at linebondingtrial@beunlimited.co.uk. Be Broadband will then contact BT on behalf of successful applicants to order the two telephone lines. A new router will be given to customers by a Be Broadband employee. Customers who participate in the trial will receive the 30 days free of charge, as well as the following month’s subscription. They may also keep the two lines for a year without charge.

While customers participating in the trial should see their broadband speeds dramatically increase, it is unlikely they will double. Generally a second line will be of a lesser quality than the first that was installed, and in the long run customers are unlikely to see paying for two lots of line rental as value for money, even when speeds go up significantly.

T-Mobile announce £2 a Day Mobile Broadband

Last Friday, T-Mobile announced the launch of a new Mobile Broadband service designed for light and occasional mobile surfers. Similar to SIM-only mobile plans, customers only pay for what they use, and are not tied into a long term contract; they are only obligated to give up to 30 days notice if they want to opt out of the service.

Under the new price plans, T-Mobile customers to surf the net on the move for just £2 per day for 3GB worth of usage, with longer term plans giving you a weeks worth of surfing for a tenner, and a month (30 days) for £20, after having purchased a 110 Stick USB Modem (pictured), for a one-off fee of £49.99.

Punters automatically start out on a £2 a Day tariff; you can upgrade to the 7 Day and 30 Day contracts by texting ’150′ from the T-Mobile text centre on your laptop. Mobile users who are on the T-Mobile network can also top up their contacts for free by texting either ’7 DAY’ or ’30 DAY’ to 441 on T-Mobile.

This new T-Mobile tariff is billed as coming with ‘unlimited’ monthly usage, which is true, you can download however much you want and not be encumbered by any extra charges, although customers who exceed the stated ‘fair use’ limit of 3GB will see their connection restricted to certain times of the day, or daily usage amounts depending the browsing habits and behaviour of each customer.

BT reveals its next-gen network capabilities

As Fibrecity and H20 Networks get on with hooking Bournemouth up to the 21st Century, BT have announced some details which sheds some light on the types of services that will be made available across its new and improved 21st Century Network (21CN) when it is completed.

2Wire, a manufacturer of residential and business broadband solutions based in San Jose, have today announced that BT have begun deploying their new HomePortal 2701HGV ‘residential gateways’ (pictured) – hardware capable of supporting a range of broadband interfaces from ADSL2+ to Fibre to the Home/FttH connections – at their Ebbsfleet site in Kent.

Andy Kelly, head of BT Next Generation Access (NGA) said, “We are proud to bring super-fast broadband connectivity to our customers in the UK and are eager to partner with companies who share our vision for the next phase of the broadband revolution.

BT’s fibre-based super-fast broadband network will give subscribers enough speed to run multiple bandwidth-hungry applications. For example, some members of a family could be watching different high-definition movies at the same time others are gaming or working on complex graphics or video projects. The new services will also offer substantially improved “upstream” speeds, allowing customers to post videos, use hi-def video conferencing, and enjoy interactive HD gaming.”

So, in years to come we can expect to enjoy HD movies and TV content on demand, HD gaming online, VoIP calls and faster and more reliable home networking solutions all running simultaneously through one connection. BT’s 21CN is due to be completed sometime in 2011, and is expected to cost the telco a sum exceeding £10 billion.

Sky Broadband to launch ‘unlimited’ ad campaign

Sky Broadband is set to issue a challenge to its rivals as it prepares to launch an advertising campaign, claiming to be the only internet service provider to offer truly unlimited broadband to its customers.

This comes after Sky decided to remove its fair usage policy, which limits “excessive” downloading, on its top-tier Sky Broadband Max product. The company added that because it does not cap download speeds at peak times, known as “traffic shaping”, it offers genuinely “unlimited” broadband.

“Customers have told us that they want ‘unlimited’ broadband to be exactly that, so we’ve acted on their feedback,” said a spokesperson for Sky. “We believe that we are now the only major broadband provider to offer truly ‘unlimited’ broadband.”

Sky Broadband will still maintain its “acceptable usage policy”, but this limits the type of content that people can download rather than how much.

Sky Broadband is likely to launch its new campaign towards the end of the month, advertising over TV, newspapers and magazines, the internet and through direct marketing, triggering an expected marketing battle with rival ISPs.

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Carphone rumour reignites interest in Tiscali

Carphone Warehouse has again signalled interest in taking over the home broadband and fixed-line operations of Tiscali in the UK and Italy. The Milanese comms company announced it was looking out for a buyer of its European ops earlier this year, and bidding for the Tiscali broadband tentacles began in April.

At one point, Vodafone, the worlds biggest mobile network, looks set to snap up Tiscali, in a bid to leapfrog its UK mobile rivals Orange and O2, who both have a strong presence in the UK broadband market. However, Vodafone pulled out in June following a falling out over Tiscali’s valuation of its assets.

Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk/AOL) were rumoured to be interested, but after the Vodafone fracas, even they seemed disinterested. Now it appears that a buyout of Tiscali is back on the cards, although this time the offer appears to be just for its British and Italian customers – previously the deal was thought to be for all of Tiscali’s continental concerns.

If such a deal goes ahead, the acquisition would see Carphone Warehouse overtake BT and clinch the top spot in the UK Broadband stakes. A merger of the two would see the total combined consumer base swell to a figure in excess of 4.6million, which would leave BT trailing behind in second place, and the Big 6 becoming a Big 5.

Carphone Warehouse currently serves around 2.8 million UK customers through both TalkTalk and AOL UK. Tiscali, through its own subscriber base and that of Pipex, which it annexed in July 2007, serves a figure just shy of 2 million; 1.84 million after losing 37,000 subscribers last quarter.

In a related story, Tiscali began legal proceedings against BT in July, after it transpired that the market leader, wise to news of a sell-off, played on customers understandable fears by sending out letters to Tiscali subscribers, urging them to switch to a provider that is “complete and is here to stay,” (i.e. BT).

Bournemouth residents get free next-gen fibre

Fibrecity, a subsidiary of dark fibre providers H20 Networks, have been offering a number of Bournemouth residents free connections if they give the company permission to connect their homes to their next-gen fibre optic network. Fibrecity distributed letters to Bournemouth addresses at the end of July, offering those who signed up within 28 days of receiving the letter a free connection to the new network.

We’ve received a copy of the letter (see below) and the promotional welcome pack which came included. The new network promises to deliver “speeds in excess of 100Mbps,” according to the promotional fanfare, which quotes Nick King, Councillor for the Littledown and Ilford ward saying “I am sure Fibrecity will bring massive rewards to all homes that sign up.” A similarly phrased statement appears on the H20 Networks blog quoting the Conservative Councillor back in May, when it was announced that Bournemouth, along with Dundee in Scotland, would become one of the two cities in the UK to first receive a next-gen dark fibre rollout.

Dark fibre is considered to be advantageous over typical cable networks, as cable connections are ran through sewer ducts, therefore removing the necessity to have to dig up the roads. The Bournemouth project is reportedly set to cost Fibrecity some £30 million – those who did not sign up during August will have to pay to be connected if they want to make use of Fibrecity’s lines.

The letter states that “connection does not take long and opting in does not obligate you to use the services that will be available”. There is no mention of Fibrecity providing any services directly to customers, although the promotional booklet mentions IPTV and hints at fixed-line international calls, and long-distance healthcare. Presumably Fibrecity and H20 Networks will accrue revenue through leasing lines out to cable-enabled ISPs like Virgin Media, and, erm, Virgin Media.

Sky Broadband drops fair usage policy

Sky Broadband has removed its fair usage policy on most of its packages, thus becoming the first Internet Service Provider to offer truly unlimited downloads.

Although many ISPs offer “unlimited” broadband downloads, many will implement a “fair usage policy” which restricts those users considered to use an excessive amount of bandwidth. Users who regularly practise P2P (peer to peer) file sharing are most likely to fall into this trap. ISPs take various measures to prevent their customers using excessive bandwidth, such as restricting broadband access, reducing download speeds ant peak times or even cancelling their subscription altogether.

But now Sky Broadband has told customers they can download as much content as they want at any time, without worrying about speed capping or data charges. Previously Sky customers had to stick to a fair usage policy of 250GB downloads per month.

The company has reassured customers that enough space has been made available to accommodate the changes. A spokesperson said that Sky decided on the change after several customers complained that commercials were misleading because they advertised their broadband service as being “unlimited” when in fact downloads were restricted.

Earlier this year, the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruled that Vodafone remove an advert offering “unlimited” mobile internet access, when in fact they employed a fair usage policy of 250GB a month. The ASA also received complaints about Virgin Media when they advertised download speeds of 16Mbps but imposed speed caps on its heaviest users.

However, a spokesperson for Virgin Media called Sky’s claim to be the first ISP to offer totally unlimited broadband ‘empty rhetoric’, and said that Virgin Media already had an unlimited without a fair usage policy.

Keep your Options open: new BT Home Hub 2.0 now available on all BT Broadband packages

BT’s new and improved Home Hub wireless router is now available on all of the BT Broadband Options. The new Hub, replaces the shiny, monolithic white design of the original Home Hub with a slick reflective concave curve, and boasts twice the signal strength and distance.

Initially available to new and existing customers for a whopping £90 fee on Option 1 (it was bundled free with Option 3), the new Hub 2.0 fairly swiftly took a 50% price tumble down to £45, and now it’s available to all new punters gratis.

Existing BT customers with the original Home Hub, or the so-called ‘Hub v1.5‘, can “regrade” their package by calling BT on 0800 328 1522.

It’s a knockout – Be-sponsored Eurokrieg group stages are over

The group stages of the inaugural Eurokreig Counter Strike Source tournament are over, with two UK teams from Group 8 going through to the knockout stages. The spirit of ’66 appears to be in the air as it emerges that both of the British teams, London MiNT and Fragmasters Toxic, (who both sound like failed UK Garage acts) are set to square off against the Speedlink and Hoorai teams, who both hail from Germany.

16 teams have made it through from the 8 group league stages, and now the knockout stages begin, with each team battling it out for the grand prize of €5,000 and continental gaming glory.

Eurokreig is run by Enemy Down in conjunction with official sponsors Be Broadband – the gamers ISP of choice.

Sky shuts its Picnic basket

Sky has just announced that it is to indefinitely can its proposed premium Freeview offering Picnic, citing regulatory heel dragging as the cause. Ofcom has been examining the proposals for the past 18 months, with “there is no end in sight,” according to a Sky spokesperson, who added that “no business can go on like that.”

Sky still hope to air Picnic to the public, but it has put the lid on any further development, pending action from Ofcom. “The blunt truth is that Ofcom has spent 18 months looking at our proposals and there is no end in sight. The Picnic team have done everything they can to prepare for launch and there’s nothing left to be achieved until Ofcom makes its mind up,” the Sky spokesperson said.

With Picnic, Sky proposed to remove its three existing free-to-air Freeview channels (Sky News, Sky Sports News and Sky Three) with premium Sky Movies and Sky Sports content, and the flagship channel Sky One. Picnic would be available either on its own, or as part of a bundle deal including fixed-line calls and broadband services in the same vein as its See Speak Surf bundles.

Sky pitched the idea to Ofcom back in February 2007 – rival Digital TV providers Setanta and Top-Up TV objected, and the regulator consented to having a look around the Picnic proposal. An Ofcom report was due to be published this spring which, unsurprisingly, never happened.