BT have just announced a free solution which should see millions of customers in the UK benefit from faster, and more reliable connection speeds. In a series of tests carried out and publicly demonstrated in March this year, BT Wholesale engineers showed how electrical ‘noise’ from electric equipment including TV sets, Xbox 360’s DVD players and ceiling lights, could seriously interfere with the strength and reliability of a broadband connection.
BT came up with a solution to help filter out the noise and therefore dramatically improve the performance of customers connections; by installing a simple plug-in filter into a BT NTE 5 master socket (those small white Bakelite boxes with the removable front panel?).
These Interstitial Plate filters, branded as ‘I-Plates’, isolate the bell wire – the third wire which runs alongside the pair of cables which carry broadband and telephone signals to and from the house – from the exterior interference.
Alternatively, you could isolate the bell wire yourself by simply cutting the wire out, but understandably not all punters are keen to do this, at risk of cutting the wrong wire and sabotaging their own connection. The tests in March showed how a noisy ADSL connection running at around 700kps jumped up to 3.8Mbps when an I-Plate was fitted to the master socket.
No notice yet if BT are planning to charge customers for an I-Plate, or if they plan to given them away free to BT Total Broadband customers, or any customers paying out their line rental to BT.
From the 10th of November, online customers will be able to sign up for a 12 month AOL Wireless Broadband contract which includes a top download speed of 8Mbps, a 10GB usage cap a choice of either free evening and weekend calls or unlimited anytime calls (local and national 01, 02 and 03 numbers), and pay their line rental directly to AOL, rather than having to pay BT. This means there’s just one convenient monthly bill for broadband, calls and line rental – all your communications costs covered by one neat monthly payment.
Whilst there is no difference in terms of price – the line rental is billed at £10.50 a month (that same as you’d pay BT) the total cost of the services (broadband and voice calls) plus line rental will appear as one sum on your bank statement, allowing you to quantify your costs with greater ease. Existing customers should see the change in their statement from November onwards.
The only thing required from BT is the installation of a phone line. There are no additional charges for connection or any set-up fees from AOL, or installation of the free Netgear Wireless Router (RRP £50). In addition to up to 8Mbps broadband and a choice of free call packages, all AOL Broadband customers get free technical support assistance over the phone (lines open from 8am to midnight), and allow you to switch your existing phone number over to the new service.
This AOL package will be available to customers who order online from the 10th of November, or if you can’t wait that long, give AOL a call on 0800 049 4402.
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.
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).
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.
The cost of taking super-fast fibre optic broadband to every home could total up t £28.8billion, according to a report by industry body the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG). The new figures well exceed BT’s original estimate of £15billion for installing a super-fast broadband network across the UK.
The report is designed to inform a government review of Britain’s broadband infrastructure being led by Lehman Brothers’ vice-chairman, Francesco Caio, of the cost of various ways of wiring a next-generation broadband network in Britain. Compiled from research conducted by Analysis Mason, it details a range of options for fibre-optic broadband. The cheapest option, at £5.1billion, involves taking fibre as far as street-level cabinets, which would then be connected to the home with copper wire. Even this option is three times as expensive as our current copper wire network. Speeds would vary between an estimated 30-100 Mbps.
The fastest, and most expensive option at an estimated £28.8 would use ‘point to point’ technology, delivering a dedicated fibre connection to each home, and ensuring constant speeds across the board of up to 1Gbps. A middle ground option costing £25,5 billion would deliver fibre to the premises, but with a shared line and varying speeds.
BT has conducted research that found that internet-savvy consumers are increasingly using their mobile broadband enabled smartphones to check prices and product reviews on the go.
BT customers who had used the their ToGo smartphone over the last three months were interviewed as part of the survey. The ToGo phone is available to customers who sign up to BT’s “Broadband Anywhere” internet service, which encompasses both mobile internet and a home internet service.
The survey found that almost half of those on the move were browsing for goods or services, and a third were comparing prices and reading product reviews. The most popular type of website was search engines, with 71% of customers visiting them regularly, followed by news sites (66%). Other popular websites included travel, entertainment, sport and price comparison sites. 20% of consumers said that they now spend less time online at work, and more time surfing the net on the move.
The findings correspond with a recent Ofcom report which highlighted a surge in the number of dongles and data cards sold, and concluded that a number of people were switching from fixed-line ISPs to mobile broadband.
“The days of the internet being something for the home are over,” said BT Futurologist Ian Neild. “For a growing number of savvy shoppers, the online and in-store worlds have now merged. Retailers should take advantage of the fact that customers may now have access to the Internet whilst in-store and, for example, use their wi-fi connections to deliver expert advice via a store intranet channel.”
A study by the telecoms regulator, Ofcom, has found that the copper wiring network currently used in the UK could deliver speeds of up to 50Mbps if exploited to its full potential. In an investigation into Britain’s current broadband network, Ofcom wanted to test whether it would be capable of delivering the higher speeds that ISP customers are demanding.
In theory, copper wires could still achieve speeds of up to 50Mbps if an upstream modem is hosted in the exchange. However, in practice actual speeds would probably be far lower, as the quality of copper wiring varies considerably between households.
The latest findings could throw a spanner in the works when it comes to BT’s grand plan, announced in July of this year, to install a £1.5 billion fibre-optic network across the UK, if the telecoms company agrees with the findings. Virgin has also expressed interest in investing in the network. A number in the industry fear that Ofcom’s findings could severely delay investment in a fibre-optic network, meaning that Britain would lag behind the rest of Europe, and certainly Asia, when it comes to ultra high-speed broadband.
Traditional ISPs are having to fight harder than ever to retain their customers as more and more of us are switching to mobile broadband.
According to the recent YouGov Dongle Track Report the increasing popularity of mobile broadband could pose a serious threat to Internet Service Providers offering fixed-line connections. The survey found that one in eight mobile broadband subscribers have either abandoned their fixed line ISP or opted for a mobile internet service instead of a traditional ISP. A further 5% of those subscribing to both fixed-line and mobile broadband are planning on dropping their ISP service within the coming year. The mobile networks - Orange, Vodafone, O2, 3 and T-Mobile all offer a mobile broadband service.
According to YouGov “With increasing numbers of households dispensing with their landlines (13% according to Ofcom) accessing the Internet through the mobile phone network is a viable option especially for the young and mobile.”
Orange are understood to be ready to launch their long-awaited IPTV (TV via broadband) service, after having taken its trials for its digital TV service to the whole country. Launch was supposed to be something in ‘late 2007′, which obviously didn’t happen, and the launch was moved back to an indeterminate time – trials are apparently still ongoing, but it is understood that the service will be ready to launch very soon.
At the time, Orange said that: “The first phase - our trial to existing paying broadband customers - started in November. Around 300 customers in Leeds and London are currently providing us with essential feedback. Once we’ve reviewed and assessed this feedback, we’ll then continue to roll out to other major towns and cities in the New Year.”
Orange has managed to secure a deal with MGM which will allow them to supply movies on demand to France, Spain and Poland as well as the UK. Orange will also be rolling with Rewind TV, a catch up service which allows you to watch the last months’ worth of programmes on demand - check out the clip uploaded to YouTube.
This could really help Orange’s IPTV offering stand out from the crowd, as the Virgin Media and BT Vision catch up services by contrast allow you to watch the last week’s worth of programmes. By effectively quadrupling the amount of TV you can watch, Orange have already increased the added value of their digital TV service four fold. We said last December that 2008 was set to be the year of IPTV. This could be interesting…
BT have just announced a free solution which should see millions of customers in the UK benefit from faster, and more reliable connection speeds. In a series of tests carried out and publicly demonstrated in March this year, BT Wholesale engineers showed how electrical ‘noise’ from electric equipment including TV sets, Xbox 360’s DVD players and ceiling lights, could seriously interfere with the strength and reliability of a broadband connection. 
From the 10th of November, online customers will be able to sign up for a 12 month 
As 
Traditional ISPs are having to fight harder than ever to retain their customers as more and more of us are switching to mobile broadband.