PlusNet have ever so slightly just beefed up the usage of their entry-level Option 1 broadband package. Option 1, which provides up to download speeds of 8Mbps and allows users to take advantage of unlimited downloads during the ‘graveyard shift’ of 12am Midnight to 8am in the morning, now comes with a 2GB monthly download limit for all other times, for no extra cost; that’s 1GB up from the previous daytime usage limit, which was 1GB.

Today also sees the launch of the new PlusNet Essential bundle deal, a bare bones broadband and phone deal for customers who already have a router or modem and aren’t interested in making use of an IP for VPN. With no extra cost for line rental or connection, PlusNet Essential really is bare necessities broadband.

PlusNet has also undergone a bit of a makeover, sporting a new fetching mauve outfit; their new design logo is here on the right, resplendent in all its JPEG glory.

EDIT: We have just been informed by PlusNet that the Essential bundle package also comes with unlimited email addresses and a healthy 250MB of webspace, therefore making the Essential package even better value for money!

PlusNet have just opened their doors on their Broadband Summer Sale, which sees punters after a decent broadband and fixed-line calls deal able to make a killing.

Four PlusNet broadband packages, based on their Option 1, Option 2, Option 3 and Broadband Your Way Pro services, come priced at a lower than usual cost, provided that customers sign up for either of the two phone packages on offer (free evening and weekend calls or anytime calls).

Customers singing up for PlusNet broadband Option 1, usually fork out £9.99 a month – under this scheme, customers can enjoy the first three months at the reduced rate of £4.99 a month. Similar discounts roll out across the other packages – £7.49 for the first 3 months on Option 2 (then £14.99), and £9.99 for the first 3 on both the Option 3 and Pro packages (£19.99 a month thereafter).

Activation is free if you stay with PlusNet for 12 months, and if you already have your own router or modem, you don’t have to sign up for any hardware if you don’t want to. Of the two phone packages available, Evenings & Weekends costs £9.99 a month and gives you free evening and weekend calls to UK landlines, and Anytime+ costing £15.00 a month, gives you free anytime calls plus 300 minutes a month to 20 top international destinations. The cost of line rental is included in both packages.

Ofcom have come up with a new code of conduct for ISPs to help consumers get a real estimate of the service they are likely to receive. The code will see providers listing the downstream speeds that consumers are likely to be able to achieve at certain times of the day (peak times, overnight usage, etc).

The new Code of Practice, which was drafted in association with the ISPA, is however voluntary, and it is therefore unlikely that we will be seeing the end of “up to” style advertising anytime soon.

Having said that both Virgin Media and PlusNet have been more transparent than most, telling customers in advance about their peak time throttling and traffic shaping measures.

Seeing as the majority of UK ISPs deliver services via BT phone lines, one of the best ways to check your potential broadband speed is to use our Line Checker and Speed Test tools to see what speeds you should be and are actually getting.

Ofcom have also announced that they will be conducting new surveys across 2,000 homes to assess general speeds and quality of service; the results will be published later this year.

Next week Nintendo launch WiiWare for their phenomenally successful Wii console. WiiWare titles are games and Wii applications that can be purchased via the Wii Shop Channel and downloaded onto machines in the same vein as the retro Virtual Console titles, with players paying for games using the Wii Points currency system.

Chief among the first run of titles is Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, a Sim City-style spin-off of Square Enix’s hugely popular Final Fantasy series which sees the player taking control of a small township and expanding it into a flourishing kingdom for the whole world to marvel at. Other hotly anticipated titles include Lost Winds, a sort of throwback to the classic 2D platformers of old, Star Soldier R, a retro-style shooter, and an update of the pill-popping Dr. Mario & Germ Buster.

The games themselves are generally smaller in scope than hard copy titles – by eliminating the cost of packaging and distribution, developers can take more risks with innovations in games and recoup losses easily. The games themselves are also pretty cheap, as the following prices (taken from a Eurogamer article) indicate:

FFCC: My Life as a King – 1500 Wii Points (£10.50)
Dr. Mario & Germ Buster – 1000 Wii Points (£7)
Lost Winds – 1000 Wii Points (£7)
Pop – 700 Wii Points (£5)
Star Soldier R – 800 Wii Points (£7)
TV Show King – 1000 Wii Points (£7)

Whilst this represents a big plus for gamers, punters ought to be wary of the strain which WiiWare downloads will have on Britain’s creaky broadband infrastructure. Customers who’ve signed up for packages from PlusNet can take advantage of unlimited overnight usage and simply download WiiWare games in the evening, and Virgin Media customers will be mindful of the peak time (4pm to 9pm) after which they are free to Wii ’til their hearts content.

Last year, Bill Gates announced that BT Vision were to launch a new HD download service for Xbox 360 owners, effectively allowing their machine to double as a high-definition PVR – initial reports suggested that this service was all set to be ship shape by this summer, although BT have been a bit schtum on the issue of late.

Broadband customers signing up for PlusNet’s Home Phone Evening and Weekends service will pay just £4.99 for line rental for the first three months of a 12 month contract, and then £9.99 per month thereafter. The package includes all evening and weekend calls to UK landlines as well as free calls to other PlusNet Home Phone customers at any time.

PlusNet’s Anytime+ package has also been cut to £10 per month for the first six months (£15 per month thereafter). The package includes all calls to UK landlines, free calls to other Home Phone customers and 300 call minutes to the top 20 international destinations.

The PlusNet phone packages are available to anyone who signs up for any of the PlusNet packages, from Option 1 to the new Broadband Your Way Pro.

The results of the tenth ISPA Internet industry awards ceremony which took place last week are in. The coveted Best Consumer ISP award was picked up by PlusNet, who scooped the accolade because of their flexible monthly contracts and the clearly defined usage limits of their packages. An ISPA spokesperson had this to say about the winners:

“The judges agreed that PlusNet put their customers first with transparent usage allowances rather than vague Fair Usage Policies and their self-developed traffic management system. The judges also felt that PlusNet’s one month contracts were very beneficial to consumers.”

Runners up in the category were BT, Virgin Media and Tiscali. Previous winners Eclipse who won the best consumer broadband award in 2007, picked up two gongs this year, winning best business ISP and best business email. BT Yahoo! scooped the award for Best Portal - other nominees in this category were Virgin Media, Tiscali, and Orange.

The Internet Villain Award of 2008 went to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for their spectacular EPIC FAIL late last year, which saw the confidential details of 25 million recipients of child benefits go missing due to unbelievably low-tech data protection measures.

PlusNet, with their customisable usage limits and unlimited free midnight browsing, are all set to big themselves up as the gamer’s broadband choice by way of a pretty sweet promotion with high street video game retailer Game.

Until March 31, 2008, new customers signing up to the Broadband Your Way Pro service will also be eligible for a free £40 voucher to spend at any GAME store in the UK. PlusNet’s Broadband Your Way Pro package has been specifically tailored for online gaming, with all gaming and VoIP traffic identified and prioritised allowing for low ping and latency and a reliable, and stable connection.

At the standard monthly rate of £19.99 you get 10GB of prioritised usage, which can be increased by an additional gigabyte for an extra 75p per gig, and l33t playerz intent on pwning n00bs all night long can rejoice with unrestricted bandwidth between midnight and 8:AM.

The majority of nominees for the 2008 Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) Awards have been released.
The prestigious awards, which have been running since 1999, are divided into categories to recognise the
various innovations, features and business practices of the UK’s leading ISPs.

“Each year the event changes to reflect changes in the sector and to represent the ever broadening nature
of the service provider sector,” says the ISPA’s website. The categories released so far are:

Best Consumer Broadband
Best Business Broadband
Best Portal
Best Business ISP
Best Wireless ISP
Best Consumer Email
Best Business Email
Best Dial-Up
Best Internet Telephony

Among the nominees for best website (”Best Portal”) are, BT, Virgin Media, Orange and Tiscali, whilst Eclipse Internet,
overall winners of last year’s awards, are up for Best Business ISP for their business broadband packages, as are
PlusNet. Eclipse are also up for Best Business Email, and Virgin have also been nominated in the Best Consumer
Broadband category.

Remember in the early to mid 90’s when anything that was branded as being ‘interactive’ or having ‘multimedia’ capabilities was seen as being the very acme of cutting edge and zeitgeist irrespective of whether it was actually either of those terms or indeed any cop at all?

Well it looks as though IPTV is set to become the ‘interactive multimedia’ of 2008 in terms of it being absolutely everywhere and probably misunderstood by quite a few people in the frantic scramble by all of the main players in the broadband league to make sure they’ve got the correct IPTV eggs in the right basket.

Regular readers will know that IPTV is, put simply, video content downloaded from the interweb and played on a compatible TV screen via a digital set-top box which connects with your router.

the BT Vision menu, in all it’s shiny purple glory

In this sense, BT are already paving the way, connecting just over 100,000 of their 4 million customers to the BT Vision platform. BT are thought to be rolling out their Home Hub - required for BT Vision to work - to PlusNet customers in the new year. Tiscali have also been busy acquiring rights to desirable content including the ‘missing’ Sky channels (Sky One, Sky Sports News etc) and on-demand movies. Orange have made noises and indeed have carried out trials of a similar service, but have put off a launch until the time is, ahem, ripe.

O2 are also set to launch an on-demand IPTV service in 2008 to compete directly alongside fellow mobile network/ISP Orange. O2 have launched an IPTV platform in the Czech Republic and already have deals with content providers Warner Bros, HBO and Paramount in place, and France Telecom, who own Orange, run a successful service in France.

With regard to IPTV if current trends continue, then it looks as though IPTV will become the must-have of next year as everyone struggles to offer what the competition already does – Sky and Virgin Media notwithstanding for obvious reasons. Ultimately, all this seems to point to is an extra level of strain on the already strained and long obsolete copper infrastructure as everyone struggles to play catch-up.

2007 has also seen much consolidation in the Broadband marketplace, with mergers and acquisitions seeing old players shake hands and donning new team colours.

At this stage in the financial year, there’s still everything to play for up until April 2008, with takeovers from Tiscali and Carphone Warehouse hopefully giving former stragglers Pipex and AOL a shot in the arm, and with Sky connecting customers at a phenomenal rate since the launch of their successful See Speak Surf squad formation. Up and coming ISP Be Broadband, has also been a keen player, thanks to partners O2, who have just launched their own broadband service using the Be network.

We’ve taken a quick look at the total take-up of the big six so far, and had a look a some of the more prominent ‘tier 2′ ISPs available.

UK Broadband Premiership – Q3 Figures 07/08 Season

BT Group (BT Broadband/PlusNet/Brightview) - 4.1 million

Virgin Media (including Virgin Media Cable and ADSL) - 3.3 million

Carphone Warehouse (TalkTalk/AOL UK) - 2.5 million

Tiscali (Tiscali Broadband/Pipex) - 2 million

Orange (Orange Broadband) - 1.6 million

Sky (Sky Broadband/UK Online) - 1 million

UK Broadband Division 1

O2 Telefónica - have launched O2 Broadband, using the Be Broadband ADSL2+ network. O2 Broadband comes at a discounted price to O2 Pay Monthly mobile customers who pay more than £30 a month.

NamesCo – one of the veterans of the ISP league, NamesCo may not hold as big a market share as the big hitters, but specialise more in hosting, and provision of webspace. NamesCo have generous packages for businesses and residential customers alike.

Eclipse Internet – with word of mouth spreading, Eclipse are slowly winning over customers with a solid broadband service that doesn’t rely on flashy bundle deals or expensive ad campaigns. Eclipse is owned and ran by KCOM, who handle all telecommunications within Hull and around the Kingston area.

Demon Internet – Like NamesCo, Demon have been doing the rounds since the early days of dial-up and are an established and trusted brand. Demon also specialise in hosting, providing webspace, unlimited emails, and static IP addresses with their home and business packages.