March 11, 2010
Our satisfaction of Broadband speeds in the UK has reportedly fallen for the third year in a row!
A broadband speed satisfaction survey was done by broadband comparison website broadbandchoices.co.uk that had 8,000 respondents and around a third of those who answered were not satisfied with the broadband speeds that they received. The level of dissatisfaction since last year has increased where 27% were not satisfied and is basically double how dissatisfied users were in 2008 when 16% said they were not happy with their broadband speeds.
Broadband speeds for many is the main important factor they have with their internet connection, and with broadband speeds being the main selling points to many broadband deals alongside the price it is only to be expected that the speed we receive is of high importance.
Of those who responded, 28% of those said that they were planning on changing broadband providers because they were not happy with their broadband speeds.
It appears that the main dissatisfaction comes from those who are on standard 8Mb or below broadband deals, as the study also found that of the broadband subscribers who were on 24Mb and above broadband deals only 15% of these were not satisfied with their broadband speeds.
Demand for fast broadband is ever increasing, this is mainly because more and more online applications become available that require faster broadband connections, such as streaming TV and music live and the internet connections are used to do more tasks.
Not a day goes by when there is not more talk of the latest fibre optic broadband deployments. As such we anticipate that as broadband speeds increase the “bar” for what broadband speed we want to achieve will continue to be raised and once fibre broadband is deployed throughout the UK (BT are currently starting their roll out of fibre broadband) we anticipate that we will see those on ADSL2+ (24Mb broadband) becoming the ones who are not as satisfied of their broadband speeds.
One big bug-bear with broadband speeds is the advertised speeds are quite often not close to what the user is actually going to receive, the advertised “up to” speeds are the theoretical maximum broadband speeds users would be able to receive but there are very few, especially on standard copper wired ADSL who are likely to get this maximum speed.
Currently though, for those who are not satisfied with their broadband speeds should look to see if fibre broadband is available to them (Virgin Media) or if their telephone exchange has ADSL2+ enabled where they will be able to receive broadband speeds up to 24Mb and to consider changing their broadband provider if they are not happy with the download and upload speeds that they receive.
To see what broadband speed you receive use our free broadband speed test tool.
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Virgin Media are to look to look up instead of down when it comes to installing some of it’s fibre optic cable by using telegraph poles.
 Plans by Virgin Media, the UK’s largest cable operator are to use telegraph poles and existing ducts to deliver it’s cable broadband services that will be able to deliver broadband speeds up to 50Mb and also it ’s digital TV services if a trial of the technology to Woolhampton in Berkshire goes well.
Virgin Media currently have their current fibre cable network underground which can prove expensive to deploy with the digging up of roads, however up to this point they have not been able to do any different as there are planning guidelines which stop large scale overhead deployment of cable.
The government is looking at the possibility of changing these guidelines which would then open up the possibility for Virgin Media to do large scale overhead deployment of their cable network which Virgin Media estimate could benefit around 1 million homes.
Virgin Medias Chief Executive, Neil Berkett said:
“This unique trial will allow us to understand the possibilities of aerial deployment and may provide an exciting new way to extend next generation broadband services. With everything from BBC iPlayer to YouTube increasingly demanding reliable ultrafast broadband speeds, we’re keen to ensure that all communities, in towns, cities and villages right across the UK, stand to benefit.”
The government are keen to get next-generation digital services out to rural communities and allowing Virgin Media to look up instead of down could be one way to help with rolling out fibre broadband to more rural areas.
Virgin are already planning on extending their network to another 500,000 homes that would then be able to access it’s current top rated XXL broadband service offering 50Mb. There are currently 12.6 million homes in the UK that are able to connect to the Virgin Media network.
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March 10, 2010
Leading broadband providers in the UK have co-signed a letter published in the Financial Times about recent amendments to the Digital Economy Bill.
The changes to the Digital Economy Bill to adopt amendment 12A that Parliament are to address look to force broadband providers to block websites that have been accused of hosting copyrighted material illegally without the case even being heard by a judge.
The letter in the Financial Times says that:
“The Lords have been thoughtful in their consideration of the bill to date. It is therefore bitterly disappointing that the House has allowed an amendment with obvious shortcomings to proceed without challenging its proponents to consider and address the full consequences,”
“Put simply, blocking access as envisaged by this clause would both widely disrupt the internet in the UK and elsewhere and threaten freedom of speech and the open internet, without reducing copyright infringement as intended. To rush through such a controversial proposal at the tail end of a parliament, without any kind of consultation with consumers or industry, is very poor law-making”
The weight behind the letter is considerable, with BT Chief Executive Ian Livingstone, alongside representatives from broadband providers Orange, TalkTalk and Virgin Media and also Google, Facebook and Ebay adding some very heavy “internet weight” to the opposition.
However, music industry officials welcome the amendments and say it sends a clear message out to those hosting copyrighted content illegally.
Mr Livingstone, the Chief Executive of BT also thinks that instead of cutting of users who illegally transfer copyrighted music and videos they should be issued with fines living driving fines where they are able to appeal it if they think it is unfair. If they don’t appeal it then they pay the fine.
The bill will have it’s third hearing in the House Of Lords next week and it will then be put before the House Of Commons to see if ther government can get it pushed through before the General Election which is expected on May 6th 2010.
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Fibre-Optic broadband access is growing across Europe as next generation broadband starts to take off.
A study done by IDATE on behalf of the Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) Council Europe showed that the rate of growth of Fibre-To-The-Home broadband went from 19% in June 2009 up to 29% by the end of December 2009.
Across Europe it is estimated that there is FTTH access available to 25 million homes and businesses with currently around 3.5 million taking subscriptions.
In Europe it was found that there was 249 FTTH projects taking place, with 136 of these being new initiatives that were launched since 2005.
The UK however does not show up on the tables for leading the way with FTTH, Norway top the charts with a coverage of 64.9% and Sweden in second spot with a FTTH coverage of 41.4% coverage.
It is countries in Western and Northern Europe that also lead the way in terms of subscriptions to FTTH services, with 67% of subscribers in these countries, Sweden, Italy, France, Norway, The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.
The UK we hope will start to feature in the next year or two as fibre broadband deployment is starting to take off a bit more here now, even though we have Virgin Media who are a cable provider the study did not include them. BT are starting the roll out of their own fibre network (BT Infinity), with around 2.5 million premises having FTTH installed by 2012 although the majority however are having FTTC (Fibre-To-The-Cabinet) installed which does not offer as fast speeds as it uses copper wires to de;liver the broadband form the cabinet to the premises. Virgin Media are also looking to offer 100Mb fibre broadband via their DOCSIS 3 network.
What is considered one of the main issues with next generation high speed broadband connections is getting people to sign up to them, so a similar process that was needed to get people to change from dial up internet to standard ADSL broadband.
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March 8, 2010
Virgin Media customers are to be exclusively able to watch Film4HD from this summer.
A deal between Channel 4 and Virgin Media has been agreed that will mean that Film4HD will be exclusively available only to Virgin Media customers when it launches later this summer on their digital TV service.
Also available to Virgin Media customers will be E4HD which gets many popular TV programmes such as Glee, Skins, Hollyoaks, Desperate Housewives, 90210 and Ugly Betty. The E4HD channel is due to launch on Virgin Media in April this year.
The executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, Cindy Rose, said:
“Channel 4 has a great track record in delivering innovative and compelling content and we’re delighted to bring some of their very best films and most popular programmes to our customers in stunning HD. As more and more households become HD-ready, we’re lining up content that makes the most of High Definition and are making HD available to all our of customers for no extra fee.“
V irgin Media already have a range of HD channels available and are due to get more added. Some of their current HD channels include: C4HD, BBC HD, National Geographic HD, ESPN HD, Discovery HD and Eurosport HD.
Virgin Media XL TV customers will be able to access the HD channels at no extra costs with BBC HD and 4HD being available to all Virgin Media digital TV customers.
To be able to receive the HD channels Virgin Media customers will need a V+ HD digital recorder which is needed to decode the channels, a HDMI cable to connect to a HD-ready TV.
Some of the new Film4 HD films expected to be shown soon are Slumdog Millionaire, Go Lucky and Looking For Eric as well as other Hollywood blockbusters and many more.
Virgin Media also have a hundreds of hours of HD on Demand programmes available to Virgin Media customers as well as the BBC iPlayer which is delivered through their cable network.
Virgin Media have recently also announced that they are to start offering 100Mb fibre broadband (Read: Virgin to start roll out of 100Mb fibre broadband) meaning that they will be able to deliver far more content such as broadband and HD Television at the same time.
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People believe that internet access is a “fundamental right” according to a global poll done for the BBC.
Over 27,000 adults were queried for the study by GlobeScan across 26 different countries and the study found that 79% believed that internet access is a fundamental right.
Of the 14,000 or so who were queried who already used the internet found that 87% of these believed that internet access should be “the fundamental right of all people”. There was 71% of non-internet users who also believed that they should have the right to access the internet.
Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that internet access is a human right for those living in these countries which are interesting for the UK at the moment as the government are trying to get their “Digital Economy Bill” pushed through which would mean that there should be universal broadband across the UK by 2012 and also that a “three strikes rule” would become law for those caught downloading illegal files such as music and videos.
The study also delved into what internet users concerns were with the internet, with fraud being the issue that concerned 32% of those questioned, 27% thought explicit and violent content was the biggest concern with 20% most worried about threats to their privacy.
In the UK we were found to be only second to Japan to feel that the internet has increased our freedom, with 87% of internet uses here believing this to be the case, just 11% did not agree that this was the case. Interestingly a figure of 75% of British felt that internet access should be a fundamental right.
Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are sites that 42% of British internet users enjoy spending time and 55% think that there should be some government regulation of the internet.
Doug Miller, the GlobeScan Chairman said:
“Despite worries about privacy and fraud, people around the world see access to the internet as their fundamental right. They think the web is a force for good, and most don’t want governments to regulate it.”
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March 1, 2010
O2 are to offer mobile phone discounts worth up to £50 for new customers who take up their home broadband.
The home broadband packages that the discounts apply to are either the Premium or Pro packages.
The O2 Premium package is available for £10 for O2 mobile phone customers or £15 for everyone else and offers customers a free wireless router, up to 20Mb download speeds, upload speeds of 1.3Mb 200 free web texts and McAfee security software.
The O2 Pro package also comes with an enhanced wireless router, 500 free web texts per month, 2.5Mb upload speeds and a dedicated customer service number for a cost of £17.50 per month for existing O2 mobile customers or £22.50 for everyone else.
Both deals are available on a 12 month contract and come with unlimited usage (fair use policy applies).
The £50 mobile phone discount will be automatically applied in one lump sum after 11 months of have the home broadband.
O2 are due to launch their own home phone package later this month meaning that they will then be able to offer broadband bundles of home broadband, mobile phone, home phone and mobile broadband.
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February 26, 2010
New studies are to be undertook by Ofcom and the SamKnows website into the broadband speeds we receive.
 The research follows up successful broadband speed testing done last year between Ofcom and SamKnows and is designed to give a more accurate picture of our actual broadband connections and speeds and not just the advertised “up to” speeds that we all see.
Quite often there is a big difference between the advertised “up to” speed that broadband providers advertise and the actual broadband speed received by the consumer.
Volunteers are currently being recruited to take part in the study and if selected then they will be provided with a White Box that will be then used to monitor the web traffic for specific broadband providers.
With broadband in the UK rapidly changing and getting faster the information gathered will be interesting to see for those who are signed up to the next generation fibre broadband deals and those on the BT 21CN network.
The BT C1CN network is due to offer ADSL2+ technology to around 75% of UK homes by Spring 2011 which is able to deliver theoretical maximum broadband speeds of 24Mb.
We also have the huge investment in fibre optic networks currently taking place, with BT rolling out their own fibre broadband network which will offer broadband speed up to 40Mb, Virgin Media already have a 50Mb broadband package and announced yesterday that by the end of the year that they will be starting to roll out Virgin Media 100Mb broadband via their new DOCSIS 3 network.
The last broadband testing that was funded by Ofcom to be done via the “White Box” in 2009 found that the average broadband speed was 4.1Mb which was the equivalent of 57% of the advertised headline speed.
CEO of SamKnows, Alex Salter said:
“What started out as a project to monitor and report on the UK’s broadband connectivity in general, it instead highlighted that a clear discrepancy exists between what the ISPs are saying and what the end consumer is actually receiving.
What we’re looking to measure in the forthcoming project is how this ISP performance will improve as consumers switch to services which are being advertised as significantly faster.”
It is anticipated that the broadband speeds of users will increase throughout the year as new technologies become rolled out and made available to more people and as such we would expect the average broadband speed we are receiving to also rise in line with this.
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February 25, 2010
Virgin Media are set to start the roll out of their own 100Mb fibre broadband and help take broadband in the UK up to the next level.
The news comes hot on the heels of yesterdays announcement by Fibrecity who announced the three broadband providers who would be offering the residents of Bournemouth their own 100Mb fibre broadband services.
The news that virgin Media are to start rolling out a 100Mb fibre optic broadband service will also be a blow to big rivals BT, who are currently rolling out their own fibre network “BT Infinity” that offers broadband speeds up to 40Mb.
Also, with Virgin already having it’s network available to around half of UK homes and businesses it gives them good footing to deploy their new technology to double their current headline speed of 50Mb to 100Mb.
Thew new speed increases come as part of Virgin’s DOCSIS 3 network which is already delivering broadband speed of up to 200Mb in Ashford, Kent where the initial trials are taking place. These trials are set to be extended now to Coventry where the trials will continue to focus on future technologies such as teleconferencing and downloading HD programmes on demand.
The other exciting news with this is that Virgin believe that the DOCSIS 3 network will be capable of broadband speeds up to 400Mb.
Neil Berkett, Virgin Media’s Chief Executive said:
“There is nothing we can’t do with our fibre optic cable network, and the upcoming launch of our flagship 100Mb service will give our customers the ultimate broadband experience. Just as we led the way by launching the UK’s first ever next generation service, we want to keep giving our customers the very best broadband available, by investing in technological innovation and transforming the experience they have when they are online. The launch of Virgin Media’s 100Mb service will be a historic moment and will mean the UK will be comparable to other leading broadband nations.“
Although this will likely be a bit of a blow to BT, as consumers hopefully we will see the benefit as the battle to offer the fastest broadband continues between Virgin Media and BT.
BT won’t want to stay a long way behind Virgin Media but unless they perhaps up their ambitions they could well be stuck behind, especially as Virgin Media have funded this with their own money and not been asking for tax payers money to fund it like BT was asking for to help with the roll out of their own fibre network.
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February 24, 2010
Bournemouth residents are set to have the fastest broadband in the UK, dwarfing the broadband speeds to be offered by BT Infinity and Virgin Media fibre broadband by getting a superfast 100Mb fibre broadband.
 The three fibre broadband providers have been announced who will be providing fibre broadband over the Fibrecity network and be able to offer fibre broadband speeds up to a whopping 100Mb, this is double the current maximum that Virgin Media offer (50Mb) and over double what BT Infinity will offer (40Mb).
The Fibrecity network will use Fibre To The Home (FTTH) and has been installed using existing waste pipes and sewers meaning that it could be installed at a hugely reduced cost than would have been possible if they had had to dig up roads.
The Fibrecity network will also not just be offering super fast fibre optic broadband but also telephone and TV. With a fibre connection of 100Mb it means that the fibre optic network connection can easily cope with handling a number of different applications, such as streaming videos, webcam use, telephone calls and online gaming without there being an effect on the other applications that are also using the connection at the same time.
Another plus point with the Fibrecity networks is that no telephone line rental charges are charged, also, as the telephone can run through the fibre network aswell it also means that you could get rid of your BT telephone line if you wish.
The 3 providers who will be providing the fibre broadband services have been announced as, VISPA, Velocity1 and Fibreband.
The homes in Bournemouth that have already been connected to the Fibrecity network will be contacted to have a set-top-box installed that will then let them connect to the fibre broadband from one of the 3 broadband providers.
This new network is currently only available in Bournemouth although Fibrecity are currently doing a network in Dundee. Going on the success of these it is likely that further cities and locations will have Fibrecity networks installed.
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