November 2, 2011
Fixed line broadband customers in the UK are using on average 17Gb of data per month according to figures released today by Ofcom.
The demand for data has grown considerably the last few years, and with ever increasing broadband speeds it is likely to continue to grow into the future. According to data from the London Internet Exchange they have found that demand for data has risen seven fold over the last 5 years.
To put the 17Gb of monthly data use into perspective, it equates to around downloading 11 films per months or streaming 12 hours of BBC iPlayer HD video or more than 12 days of streaming audio content.
This increase in data use is largely possible to the now genuinely unlimited broadband packages that are on the market giving users more freedom to download without the worry of exceeding download limits, however users should be aware that they check what their download limits are on their broadband deals to avoid any problems going forward as not all broadband deals come with unlimited broadband.
With BT’s £2.5bn investment into fibre broadband that will cover two thirds of the UK by 2014 and with speeds on their “slowest” fibre broadband due to be increased to up to 80Mb broadband connections we can only expect that both broadband limits on any broadband plans are increased and that the average monthly use across the UK will also continue to grow.
The Guardian newspaper got figures out of Virgin Media and TalkTalk of their customers average usage. Virgin media said that those customers on 10Mb broadband services used on average 19Gb per month, while those on their 100Mb broadband lines were using around 130Gb per month. TalkTalk said that their average user downloads around 13Gb per months while BT would not give any details.
Mobile broadband data is still quite low in comparison, with on average just 240Mb per connection.
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November 1, 2011
Virgin Media are offering new and reconnecting Virgin Broadband and Virgin Mobile customers free Spotify Premium access worth around £10 per month as part of a new deal.
 New or reconnecting Virgin Broadband customers who take out an XL (30Mb), XXL (50Mb) and 100Mb broadband deal will get themselves 6 months free Spotify Premium access which has allot more enhanced features and usability than the free Spotify option. The 6 months free Spotify Premium is worth around £60.
The same deal applies to new and reconnecting Virgin Mobile customers who take out a pay monthly contract and have a compatible mobile phone, they will receive 3 months free Spotify Premium access.
Also, when in the UK there will be no data charges for using Spotify although data charges are likely to apply when listening abroad.
Spotify is an award winning completely legal music service that allows you access to over 15 million different music tracks and albums that you can listen to when you want, you are even able to have the music available to you when you go offline. Songs you select will stream immediately so you don’t need to worry about downloading a full song before you can listen to it.
The executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, Cindy Rose, said:
“The launch of Spotify on Virgin Media marks a significant milestone for digital entertainment and the way it is enjoyed by consumers. Great digital services are no longer just about fast broadband or the latest TV technology, but increasingly about how people use their services to power and excite their daily lives. Bringing together Virgin Media services with brilliant entertainment such as Spotify is a core part of our ongoing strategy and we’re excited to be able to lead the way with such a great partnership.”
Going forward we expect to see more content tie-ups between broadband providers and content providers, especially as the increase of broadband speeds continues to grown and content can far more easily be delivered online.
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September 6, 2011
Virgin Media is to provide faster mobile broadband and more bandwidth for mobile broadband provided by Orange, T-Mobile & Three in a £100m 8 year deal announced yesterday.
The deal between Virgin Media Business and Mobile Broadband Network Limited (MBNL) will provide the UK’s first synchronous Ethernet mobile backhaul service which will mean customers who are with the previously mentioned mobile broadband providers will get access to faster mobile data with greater capacity.
MBNL is made up of Everything Everywhere (which itself was created when T-Mobile & Orange joined back in 2007) and Three Mobile UK and it is a 50/50 split between them.
As part of the £100m deal, Virgin Media will set up 14 regional aggregation networks which will be used to connect the base stations located around the country to Virgin’s fibre services.
Virgin’s network will offer good foundations for the roll-out of 4G and LTE services with it’s synchronous Gigabit Ethernet service and it will be able to future proof itself going forward as it will be able to scale up it’s offering as and when demand requires it to.
Neil Berkett, Virgin Media’s Chief Executive, said:
“Being connected all the time to social networks, the internet and their favourite apps is very much a basic expectation which operators need to deliver on. Investing now means they’ll be able to deal with the escalating data demands of today and tomorrow.”
Previously BT was the main mobile backhaul provider and it will come as a huge blow to them that 3 of the UK’s largest mobile broadband brands will now be using Virgin Media’s fibre network as apposed to their own.
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August 15, 2011
Rural broadband in the UK is to get a boost to the tune of £530m to bring broadband to “not spots” in an announcement due by the government.
The government announcement is expected to announce that it is putting up £530m to help fund the final third of the UK that are considered broadband “not spots” as they have broadband connections speeds of under 2Mb.
40 locations are to benefit when the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, revels the areas that have received funding from the £530m pot. There is also expected to be a further £300m promised after 2015 too.
The Government have set out a target of having a Universal Broadband speed of 2Mb or above for all 25m homes in the country by 2015 and 90% of the country to be with superfast broadband (this is classed as 24Mb or above).
The funding from the government is coming from the money that was left from the digital TV switchover. BT are putting in for many of the contracts to roll out to these rural areas, and providing the government backs each of the council contracts BT says that they will match the money put forward by the government and they would also expect that the councils to do the same.
BT themselves are currently investing £2.5bn in rolling out their fibre broadband network across the UK which for most homes will be via FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet and will offer speeds up to 40Mb. Users can check the speed of their internet connection by running a broadband speed test.
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July 8, 2011
FM radio waves could be used to provide broadband to rural areas according to Ofcom, the Communications regulator.
Doing this would be similar to other trials which are taking place in the Isle of Bute in Scotland also also around Cambridge where “white space” which is available in the TV spectrum is being used to deliver broadband. With the TV digital switchover due to be complete in the UK by 2012 this means there will be the chance to make use of this part of the spectrum.
Using the radio waves could work out as an ideal solution to providing broadband in rural and remote areas, as radio waves are available in both high and low frequency means that in the case of low frequency these will work well in buildings as other frequencies can’t pass through buildings as easily.
However, although the potential to use the radio waves is an option it is unlikely that we will see a large scale roll out of it as the government still have not announced a date where radio signals will all be switched form analogue to digital (in much the same way we have done with the TV signals).
Ed Richards, the Chief Executive at Ofcom, said:
“Spectrum is a resource that is in huge demand, fuelled by the recent explosion in smart phones and other wireless technologies. However there is only a limited amount of it to go around, which means we need to start thinking more creatively about how it is used. White space devices could offer the creative solution we are looking for.“
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July 5, 2011
North Yorkshire homes and businesses are set to receive a broadband boost with £16.4 million funding from the government.
“Connecting North Yorkshire” project will receive around £16.4 m from Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK), which is a government run organisation aimed at helping allocate funding for broadband across the UK.
North Yorkshire County Council was one of the 4 places that were successful in their bid for national broadband trials to get high speed broadband deployed in rural areas.
The council will also be working with the European Regional Development Fund and Nynet (the councils broadband company) where they are hoping to match the funding and end up with a pot of around £30 million in investment for the broadband deployment.
Councillor Car Les, said:
“Indeed, high-speed broadband benefits a broad demographic of people. Young people, for example, can access e-learning and a broader curriculum, often unavailable to remote, rural schools.
It also enables technology to be used to monitor and provide care direct into individual homes, allowing people to stay independent for as long as possible.“
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June 9, 2011
Globally the cost of broadband per Mb is continuing to drop according to a report from Point Topic.
The cost per Mb has fallen across all regions of the world in the 15 months that the study looked at, between Q4 2009 to the Q1 2011. The study took into account the three main fixed line technologies consumers receive broadband through, these are DSL, Cable and Fibre.
In Latin America there was the most significant drop to be found, with a huge 40% price drop, with North America and Canada having a 35% drop across all the technologies.
A Senior Analysts at Point Topic, Fiona Vainer, said:
“The price per megabit of bandwidth in Latin America has dropped by an average of over 40% and in North America and Canada by over 35% across all the fixed line technologies. This isn’t about significant reductions in the monthly subscription but about increases in the headline speed on offer.
Consumers still perceive speed, or downstream bandwidth to be more precise, as a significant factor in their decision making. This works up to a point. There is evidence that residential consumers in particular are having difficulty imagining what they can do with more than 50Mbps today and their purchasing decisions are not driven by bandwidth as much as they used to be.
It will prove increasingly difficult to differentiate yourself as a broadband supplier based just on higher and higher headline bandwidths. The mature broadband markets in particular are entering a phase where value added services and customer relationships will be more and more important. The downside is that consumers could be seeing the end of significant increases in bandwidth or reductions in tariffs.”
In Western Europe there was a 32.5% price drop on fibre broadband, with Cable dropping 28.4% and standard SDL dropping by just 16.7%. These figures would run in line with expectations, since fibre broadband in the UK and other parts of Western Europe is more of an emerging technology there will be more users who take it up broadband providers will be fighting hard to attract these new customers, with DSL services that are now very well established there will be less “room for manoeuvre” as the price battles have already been fought hard over the past few years on this technology.
With fibre broadband now being deployed quite widely across the UK and Virgin offering headline broadband speeds of 100Mb and BT widely offering 40Mb fibre broadband speeds where their new BT Infinity network have been deployed we will potentially soon be at a stage in the UK where the headline speed offered by broadband providers will level out and it will be the extra services and customers satisfaction as to what could start to be the deciding factors for broadband providers to get new customers and not so much based on how much cheaper they are than their rivals as they will probably all reach a similar price point with their respective broadband deals.
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May 12, 2011
BT’s profits rose by 71% through cost cutting with job cuts, restructuring and increasing the broadband customer base.
 BT have managed to post full year profits of £1.7bn which is up from the £1bn posted a year ago even though there was a 4% drop in revenues from £21bn to £20bn. BT have managed to save around £1.1bn with the cutting of agency and contract workers which meant that labour costs fell by 5% down to £5.8bn.
The broadband sector of BT’s business is where BT are striving and helping to increase it’s profits, with 252,000 customers added to BT’s network during the past year, this included from rival broadband providers who use BT’s network, such as Sky and TalkTalk. However, 64% of those who signed up did so direct through BT’s own broadband deals.
Ian Livingstone, Chief Executive for BT said:
“We have consolidated our position as the leading provider of broadband in the UK with our highest quarterly share of DSL broadband net additions for eight years.
Our roll out of super-fast broadband is one of the most rapid in the world, passing an average of 80,000 additional premises each week and we have plans to roughly double the speed of our fibre-to-the-cabinet based service in 2012.”
Fibre broadband is the area that BT are investing heavily in over the next few years as they roll out their “BT Infinity” network to 66% of the UK. Fibre broadband is the next generation of broadband and where the future of broadband is going to be as customers need faster broadband connections that only fibre is able to deliver. BT are investing £2.5bn between now and 2015 to roll out it’s new fibre network which it will be looking at in future to provide even greater profits for the company going forward. Currently they are adding around 80,000 premises per week to their fibre to the cabinet network which offers broadband speeds of around 40Mb, BT do say that they plan to double these speeds in 2012.
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May 10, 2011
TalkTalk are launching HomeSafe, a free malware and offensive website blocker for TalkTalk broadband customers.
 TalkTalk are the first UK broadband provider that will be providing this service at a network level, this means that unlike your usual security that is installed and controlled on your computer this HomeSafe security will be run on TalkTalks central computer system amd will in effect sit between the web and users individual home connections.
HomeSafe will come with 3 different features as security:
- Virus Alerts – a simple click will enable an alert system which blocks web pages infected with any kind of malware, to protect customers’ computers and other devices
- KidsSafe parental controls – allows the TalkTalk account holder to block the content they don’t want to be accessed through their connection, such as pornography, violence and/or gambling.
- Homework Time – this allows parents to block social networking sites like Facebook and online gaming which are common sources of distraction for school children from their homework.
The TalkTalk account holder is able to select which parts of the HomeSafe security they want to be enabled, by default the services will be off and so TalkTalk customers will need to enable them as and when they want them.
The Commercial Director of TalkTalk, Tristia Clarke, said:
“Our customers tell us that they couldn’t imagine living without the internet now, especially given how much their children rely on it for school work and social reasons, but they still worry about the innate risks the internet brings with it. In particular they’re concerned about what sort of things their children could stumble across when they’re surfing online.
This is especially important now that children are regularly using devices like phones, and not just the main family PC, to access the internet. Our research found that 33% of children aged 12-17 use their mobile phones to surf social networking sites and 29% use it to instant message when at home.
HomeSafe is our answer to this. Of course, it’s not a silver bullet and it doesn’t absolve parents from the responsibility of knowing what their children are up to online. But our research shows parents understand this. They don’t want their ISP to control what content they can or can’t access online – they just want their ISP to give them the power to implement settings that are right for their family.
That’s what HomeSafe does, and we believe it’s the most comprehensive and effective internet security product available right now. We’ve spent a lot of time working with parents, charities and other groups to get this product right and make it as user-friendly as possible, and we think it will appeal to people who want a safer internet experience for their family.“
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May 9, 2011
BT are trying to recruit 200 ex-armed forces personnel to help with the roll out of their next generation fibre broadband network.
BT Openreach has been working with the Career Transition Partnership (CTP) who offer training, help and employment support for those who are leaving the armed forces. Due to the skills of many armed service personnel BT Openreach feel that they will be able to fulfill many job roles that BT need to help facilitate their new high speed network rollout. With a fast-track programme in place, many of the 200 new recruits will be able to start work by the end of May and help BT Openreach with their target of reaching two thirds of the UK with it’s fibre network by 2015.
The CEO of Openreach, Olivia Garfield, said:
“It’s fantastic that we’ve been able to recruit so many ex-armed services personnel. These people have served their country well and so deserve the chance of full-time employment with a generous reward package. They are highly skilled, motivated and disciplined and have experience of complex engineering tasks in challenging environments.
Our “fast-track” recruitment programme should see the majority of them join us by the end of May and given their experience, we will be able to train them up quickly and get them straight out where we need them.”
The Managing Director of the CTP, David Duffy, said:
“We have had an amazing success rate with this project, and have received tremendous feedback about the high calibre of the Service leavers who have applied for the roles on offer.
The CTP offers a no cost recruitment solution, supporting organisations with their workforce strategy by understanding their recruitment needs and matching the transferable skills of Service leavers. To date, Openreach have carried out 202 interviews specifically for Service leavers with 181 subsequently being offered positions. This converts to a 90% success rate at interview and reflects the highly sought after skill-sets, abilities and attitude of those leaving the Armed Forces.“
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