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Latest
Broadband News
 UK broadband speeds increase with latest speed test results
Date: 2nd June 2009
The monthly broadband speed test results that the broadband comparison website broadband.co.uk compile have been released for the month of May 2009.
The average broadband speed achieved by the 10 most popular UK broadband providers was 4.248Mb, this is an increase in average speed of 0.111Mb from April 2009 when the average speed from the results was 4.137Mb
The average upload speed also reported a tiny increase to 0.431Mb.
As to be expected Virgin Media lead the way with the fastest average broadband speed of 5.874Mb on their fibre broadband network (although some of their users are on standard ADSL if they are not in an area covered by the fibre network) and closely followed by Be & O2 (O2 own Be) with an average broadband speed of 5.778Mb with their ADSL2+ network.
Slowest of the pack were AOL who managed an average broadband speed of just 2.276Mb
The results also showed that through the night the fastest speeds were achieved, this is because of less users using the networks during the night, throughout the day was the next quickest period and evenings were the slowest, obviously with evenings being the time when most users will access the internet at home meaning more people accessing the networks.
It is free to test how fast your broadband runs by using a broadband speed test, there are various free ones available, including our own free broadband speed test.
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7 million in the UK download illegally
Date: 2nd June 2009
In the UK there are around 7 million illegal downloaders according to a report from SABIP (Strategic Advisory Board For Intellectual Property Policy).
Part of the blame is being laid at the high speed broadband available, such as Virgin Media's fibre broadband which is capable of speeds up to 50Mb.
A 50Mb broadband connection can let users download 200 MP3 files in 5 minutes, a DVD in 3 minutes and the complete digitised works of Charles Dickens in less than 10 minutes.
The value of these illegal downloads is not small either, for one of the file sharing networks it is thought that about £12 billion worth of content is shared for free each year which is about £32 million per day!
It is not just music and films that are affected by this, e-books, software, TV programmes and games are also included.
With some broadband users receiving warning letters with regards to illegal downloading the warning is there for users to only use legal downloads, but many say that is sometimes hard to tell which are legal and which are illegal on the internet with so many different sources available.
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Funds handed out for 10Gb broadband research
Date: 18th May 2009
The Technology Strategy Board (TSB) has allocated £1 million for various feasibility projects costing between £30,000 and £100,000 that will look at technology that could deliver internet access speeds between 1Gb and 10Gb!
To get a guide as to how fast this speed is, 10Gb is 10,240Mb and BT are currently starting the roll out of their fibre broadband at 40Mb (check your own current broadband speed with our broadband speed test).
This research once done will then be collaborated with others in Europe for a larger EU funded research initiative that would potentially look at a Europe wide roll out of the technology
Obviously this is just a feasibility study at the moment and it would require a huge amount more money to actually be able to offer this sort of internet speed to homes and businesses and as such we are going to have to hope that Virgin Medias cable network and BT’s fibre network will be sufficient. Another hope with the research is that they will look at ways of utilising the current fibre optic networks out there to be able to give these ultra fast internet access speeds.
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Virgin Media to expand fibre network by 500,000
Date: 13th May 2009
Virgin Media are set to expand their cable network with the addition of another 500,000 new homes over the next few years.
 This year there is expected to be around 50,000 new home and businesses to be added.
This is the first large network expansion since the 1990's of the cable network that currently covers around 12.5 million homes.
The extra additions are likely to be added to places where it is going to be financially viable to do so, which most likely means close to areas that have existing coverage.
Again, this news comes at a time when Virgin Mediaa are regularly coming out with latest break through news, such as launching 50Mb broadband and also trialling 200Mb broadband. With BT starting the roll out of a fibre broadband network Virgin Media will be keen to get as many customers as they can signed up and using their own fibre optic cable network that offers broadband, TV and phone services.
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Actual broadband speeds less than half the advertised speed
Date: 13th May 2009
The average broadband speed that those of us in the UK receive is less than half of the advertised "up to" speed from broadband providers.
The broadband comparison website "Broadband Genie" found that on average we receive just 45.8% of the advertised "up to" broadband speed.
The broadband providers who topped the chart were Virgin Media and Talk Talk, although this was caused because customers who had thought they were on 1Mb or 2Mb broadband speed deals were actually receiving much better connections. Virgin Media customers who had thought they were receiving a 1Mb connection on average were receiving 2.9Mb which works out at just under 3 times faster!
 Virgin broadband deals has seen free broadband speed increase for customers in recent time, in 2007 those on 10Mb broadband were boosted up to 20Mb, last year those on 4Mb were upgrade to 10Mb and this year those on 2Mb will receive an upgrade to 10Mb which are big increases on what customers originally subscribed too.
The big losers in the advertised to actual speeds customers receive were from BT broadband, AOL broadband and Orange broadband which each of them providing on average just 33% of the advertised speed.
This difference in actual speed to advertised speed can cause great confusion to customers who are expecting much greater speeds without realising that the broadband speed they receive is largely affected by the distance they are form the telephone exchange, the further away they are the slower the broadband speed tends to be. Anyone can test their broadband speed by using a broadband speed test.
Hopefully though as fibre broadband becomes more popular through BT starting to roll this out, or through the advances that Virgin broadband are doing with their already established cable network, such as trialling 200Mb fibre broadband the speed issues will become less of a problem. We just need to hope that when we do get next generation broadband our actual broadband speeds will match the advertised broadband speeds much better.
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Latest
Broadband News
July 3, 2009
The 50p per month levy to be placed on all fixed copper phones won’t be enough to give total coverage of the UK with fibre broadband according to BT.
The “broadband tax” is to be charged for all premises that have a fixed copper line and was announced in the recently published Digital Britain Report.
The director of strategy at BT, Liv Garfield, said that she thinks even with the levy that there will still be a proportion of the UK where the fibre broadband won’t reach to. She thinks that it will help them to achieve around 80%-85% coverage and that 100% coverage is impossible.
The 50p per month (£6 per year) levy will raise between £150m-£175m per year that will be put in to the pot to fund the roll out of the fibre optic network into the hard to reach and remote areas of the UK.
BT have already started the roll out of their new fibre optic network and expect that by March 2010 there to be 1.5 million premises who will be able to connect via the fibre network.
Vodafone could be looking over acquiring rival mobile phone and mobile broadband rival T-Mobile UK if reports today are to be believed.
 It is reported that the owners of the German based Deusch Telecom, the owners of T-Mobile UK have instructed JP Morgan to approach Vodafone to see if they would like to bid for the mobile phone operator.
This is likely to stir the interest of the other UK mobile operators and potentially start a bidding war with the likes of O2, Orange and Virgin all potentially being interested.
If Vodafone were to acquire T-Mobile UK then it would shoot them well in front as the leading mobile operator in the UK with around 40% of the market share.
Although Vodafone is the largest mobile operator in the world, currently here in the UK they have 25% of the market, O2 have the largest share with 27% and T-Mobile have 15%.
July 2, 2009
The Carphone Warehouse has been given the go ahead to complete it’s buy out of the UK arm of Tiscali by EU authorities.
The takeover is worth £236 million which is greatly needed by Tiscali who have a huge mountain of debt that they need to pay back.
With this acquisition it will take The Carphone Warehouses total broadband customer base to around 4.25 million making it the largest UK residential broadband provider alongside it’s other broadband entities such as TalkTalk Broadband and AOL Broadband.
The European Commission who looked into the takeover concluded that it would not damage competition in the UK, and with other big broadband providers such as BT and Virgin Media there is enough big competition in the UK.
For the month of July, O2 Broadband are offering two months free broadband on all of their home broadband packages when a customer takes out a 12 month contract.
 Customers can choose from the Standard, Premium or Pro deals for those living in the LLU areas, for those who aren’t living in an area where O2 has it’s own LLU equipment then the O2 Home Access is available which also offers the 2 months free broadband but it will be delivered via standard copper network and not O2’s ADSL2+ network.
For those who choose the Pro deal which offers 20Mb broadband for £22.02 per month means that there is a saving of £44 to be made. A saving of £24 can be made for anyone choosing the Standard package and £29 can be saved on the Premium package and all users need to pay for any of these is the line rental charges.
Existing O2 Mobile customers also receive a £4.89 per month discount on all broadband deals from O2 meaning there is even more potential savings to be made which brings their O2 Pro deal which offers 20Mb broadband, unlimited Usage, 5 McAfee licences, 500 web texts and a static IP Address for just £17.13 per month!
Since O2 entered the broadband market they have become a firm favourite with customers and regularly top customer satisfaction charts.
All O2 packages come with Unlimited usage (fair usage policy applies), a free wireless box and free connection.
July 1, 2009
An enquiry into UK broadband speeds is to be done by MP’s who are on the Commons Business and Enterprise Committee.
Following the Digital Britain Report that was launched a couple of weeks ago that said that a USC (Universal Service Commitment) of at least 2Mb broadband should be available for everyone in Britain by 2012.
The enquiry is going amongst other things to look at whether or not that this 2Mb limit is actually ambitious enough, and when you compare it to South Korea who’s government has set a minimum broadband speed of 1GB then it does show up how much slower we are aiming for.
Also to be looked at is the 50p per month/£6 per year levy to be added to everyone with a fixed copper phone line to help raise funds to pay for next generation broadband for the estimate 30% of the country that are in areas that it is not financially feasible for BT or Virgin Media to roll out to.
BT are already starting the roll out of fibre broadband to start to replace their now ageing copper network that currently most use to receive their phone and broadband.
Broadband users can test the speed of their broadband with our broadband speed test.
Anyone wanting to send any correspondence for the enquiry should visit this page for details http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/berr/becpn47_0809.cfm
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