Mobile operators T-Mobile and 3 have signed a five-year agreement with BT to connect 7,500 of their base stations to BT’s high speed next-generation broadband network.

The deal was struck between BT Wholesale and Mobile Broadband Network Ltd (MBNL), a joint venture between 3 and T-Mobile. Mobile Broadband Network was established to provide 98% of the UK with access to high-speed HSDPA mobile broadband by 2010, thus making it the largest network in the country.

Mobile phone providers are being urged to increase their data transmission speeds as more and more users make wider use of mobile broadband. This need for speed has been highlighted as part of the five-year plan. Rival mobile operator Vodafone already signed a similar deal in April, with O2 following suit last May. Orange is now the only major mobile operator in the UK without such a deal.

As part of the agreement, BT will lighten the load of the network operators by carrying data from their mobile broadband services over the newly planned fibre optic network. This is known as backhaul. The deal will be worth several hundred million pounds - a large and welcome boost to BT’s business arm, which has suffered from a recent drop of revenues as companies such as Carphone Warehouse have stopped using its products.

The technology director at T-Mobile UK, Emin Gurdenli said: “This agreement with BT will make sure backhaul is not a constraint now or in the future at a time when T-Mobile is experiencing strong growth in mobile broadband and other mobile data services.”

The release of the Apple 3G iPhone, Google’s G1 and other smartphones such as the N96 are fuelling the current popularity of mobile broadband. As demand further increases, mobile providers will need to make sure that the networks they control can handle the increased volume of data traffic.

The managing director from BT Wholesale Markets, Brian Fitzpatrick said: “BT now supports the base station connectivity requirements of four of the five mobile players in the UK market, bringing our economies of scale to a hugely important element of the communications marketplace.”

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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.

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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 quotes 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 H2O Networks will accrue revenue through leasing lines out to cable-enabled ISPs like Virgin Media, and, erm, Virgin Media.

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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.

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A government inquiry team is likely to advise against major state intervention in a UK-wide fibre optic network.

Francesco Ciao, the vice chairman of Lehman Brothers in Europe who heads the review has already expressed the opinion that an ultra high-speed broadband network should not be publicly funded, and that this decision would not be detrimental to the competitiveness of the UK digital market. “What is emerging is that the UK is still one of the most dynamic markets across Europe,” he said.

“Broadband penetration has done very well. And as for the internet economy, we still have the highest expenditure on e-transactions in Europe. I would hesitate to advise any government and say, ‘Actually this is so important, so vital for the future of citizens, businesses and the media, forget it: let’s go back to a more constrained market dynamics and put fibre everywhere. There are other technologies, wireless for one, that will increasingly deliver alternatives. You might run the risk of putting £15 billion into the ground.”

However, many in the technology industry have been eagerly anticipating the planned fibre-optic network which could achieve speeds of up to 100Mbps, compared with standard copper wire connections today which tend to reach around 8Mbps. The inquiry looked at the extent to which Britain’s economy would fall behind if the expected £15 billion were no invested in a fibre optic broadband network.

“Although some other European countries are beginning to deploy next-generation access, I don’t think we are in a position to say the UK is falling behind,” Ciao said.

“The infrastructure seems to be fit for serving the needs that we have and there are early signs of competitors beginning to plan ahead to deploy next-generation access. I can’t see any reasons to be particularly concerned about a material gap in competitiveness.”

The review, commissioned by the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform will be presented to ministers this autumn.

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Vodafone will be piloting its new mobile broadband service in Reading, Berkshire. The mobile phone giant, whose global headquarters are based in near-by Newbury, will be trialling its super-fast mobile internet service in six locations across the UK. The service is targeted at businesspeople and those on the move. A USB dongle connects your laptop to the internet.

The new service, already available in parts of London and at major airports, can achieve broadband speeds comparable to those of a fixed-line connection. According to Vodafone, the new service brings customers download speeds of up to 14 times faster and upload speeds up to 22 times faster than a standard 3G connection.

Alec Howard, head of PC connectivity at Vodafone UK, said: “As we invest significantly in rolling out improved speed and capacity, mobile broadband can not only help grease the wheels of industry in Reading but is also ideal for students and new home owners.

With our predictable pricing and seamless quick set up, there has never been a better time to be with Vodafone.”

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As well as taking home two gold medals for his record-breaking 100m and 200m sprint in the current Beijing Olympics, Jamaican runner Usain Bolt will be looking forward to a pretty packet as Virgin Media have snapped him up for their latest ad campaign.

The world’s fastest man, Bolt is to become the face of Virgin Media’s superfast broadband service. The company, which is due to launch an ultra-fast 50Mbps broadband service which it claims is almost double the speed of those of rival ISPs, are considering calling the new product “Boltband”.

Ashley Stockwell, head of Virgin Media’s marketing operation said “Our new 50Mb service will deliver even faster lightning broadband speeds, which is why we feel that Usain will be the perfect ambassador for our campaign.”

After his amazing 100m victory, Bolt, aged 22, went on to smash the 200m world record yesterday in a nail-biting race that saw the second and third-place runners disqualified. He made the sprint in just 19.30 seconds, 0.02 seconds faster than the American Michael Johnson’s word record that had stood since the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

Virgin Media has used a number of celebrities in the past to promote its products and services. Kill Bill actress Uma Thurman fronted its £20 million campaign to rebrand NTL as Virgin Media, while Samuel L. Jackson and Ruby Wax have also appeared in adverts for the company.

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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.”

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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.”

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Brits are spending more time than ever online, according to a new report by the communications regulator Ofcom.

The watchdog’s fifth annual communications marketing report showed that time spent on the internet increased fourfold from 6 minutes to 24 minutes a day between 2002 and 2007, while time spent texting and talking on mobile phones crept up from 5 minutes a day in 2002 to 10 minutes a day in 2007.

Total consumption of media services in the UK is at a record high, with Britons spending on average 7 hours and 9 minutes a day surfing the net, using mobile and landline telephones, watching TV and listening to the radio.

Broadband penetration also increased last year as many customers switched from dial-up, with 58% of British households signed up to broadband by the year’s end, up from 52%. Likewise, speeds have improved. According to Ofcom, the average blended headline speed across the UK was 5.9Mbps at the end of the first quarter of 2008, up from 3.6Mbps in December 2006.

This year’s biggest success though is mobile broadband. Brits are becoming obsessed with it, with sales of dongles almost doubling from 69,000 to 133,000 per month between February and June 2008. 511,000 new mobile broadband connections were established during this period in Britain.

In 2007 there were 4.7 million more 3G connections in the UK, bringing the total to 1.5 million subscribers.
Landline phones on the other hand are languishing. 7 out of 10 people who have both a mobile phone connection and landline still phone from their mobiles even when at home. Traditional landline broadband is still the connection of choice for over 65’s. Ofcom reported a 99% take-up from this age-group in the first quarter of 2008.

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