March 11, 2010
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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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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January 20, 2010
Virgin Media are starting to inspect the traffic that goes through their fibre broadband network to see how much of it could be illegal.
The Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) is being provided by Detica and currently does not take note of the IP address of the users it monitors and those who are downloading files illegally and so won’t be used at present to target offenders.
The technology is reportedly able to see what type of files are being downloaded by users and file sharers and able to match them up to a database if they are illegal downloads for example of music or films or if they are just personal photo albums exchanged between family members.
At this stage it is just being used so Virgin Media can see how much illegal traffic is going through it’s Virgin Broadband fibre network, although there is nothing ruling out that in future it being used to target those guilty of Internet piracy.
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January 14, 2010
The UK is positioned way down the list of broadband nations in the latest study of the worldwide broadband market.
We are positioned in a disappointing 26th in the league table of broadband speeds after research done by Akamai was published in their latest quarterly “State of the Internet” report for Q3 2009.
Topping the list is South Korea who have an average broadband speed of 14.6Mb, Japan 7.9Mb, Hong Kong 7.6Mb, Romania 6.2Mb, Sweden 5.7Mb and Ireland 5.3Mb.
Looking down the list the USA comes in with 3.9Mb and the UK with just 3.5Mb average broadband speed. Globally the average broadband speed is just 1.7Mb.
The positive to look at this is that it means that we have plenty of scope to catch up providing the continued investment in fibre broadband continues which will bring us much faster broadband speeds.
The full table of countries and their broadband speeds can be viewed below. For anyone who wants to see how fats their own broadband connection is can do so by running a broadband speed test.
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January 11, 2010
The government has once again announced plans to offer broadband and free laptops to low-income families in the UK.
The plan is to give 270,000 families who are on low-income a grant so that they can get a laptop to keep and also have broadband access at home funded for a year. The scheme is set to cost around £300m and is called “Broadband for All” and is expected to have a roll out at the start of 2011.
Not only will it benefit the children for being able to learn online from home but also it will mean parents are able to access online school reports about their child’s progress so that they are fully aware of how their child is progressing.
It is envisaged that families with children aged between 7-14 will be those likely to be targeted.
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November 9, 2009
Broadband speeds can affect the saleability of a house according to the results of a recent survey.
A survey by broadband comparison site ispreview.co.uk has found that 75% would not buy a house if the best broadband speed it could achieve was just 1MB.
The results of the survey also found that 51% would be willing to pay more for a house that had a faster broadband connection.
The most popular minimum broadband speed required for a broadband connection is 4Mb with 61.7% requiring this to be the minimum.
Where fixed line broadband is not available then the most popular alternative would be a fixed Wireless connection with over half (52.5%) giving this as their option, 28.4% said that mobile broadband would be their choice and 19% chose satellite broadband.
These results, although only answered by 721 respondents does go to show that broadband is a highly important part in many peoples lives and it is only going to continue to get more important. We would easily hazard a guess that in a few years form now that if this study is done again then we will be seeing that the minimum broadband speed required will be way above the 4Mb that it currently is now!
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October 30, 2009
Sky Movies is free this weekend as Sky are offering a free weekend pass to Sky Movies.
 Sky subscribers are able to watch the Sky Movies channel “Sky Screen 1″ and “Sky Screen 1 HD” for no extra cost from 6pm today (Friday 30th October) until 6pm on Monday 2nd November.
The available free movies are:
Enchanted
The Incredible Hulk
National Treasure: Book Of Secrets
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Atonement
Lions For Lambs
The Game Plan
Superhero Movie
The Mist
Breakfast At Tiffany’s
Zulu
Bad Boys
The Godfather
X-Men
The Usual Suspects
Big
Sleepless In Seattle
West Side Story
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind
More details of the Free Sky Movies promotion can be viewed at www.freeweekend.skycreative.tv
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October 28, 2009
The UK is being called to tackle illegal downloading with the “three strikes” policy by Jean-Bernard Levy the CEO of a French Broadband provider and content maker, Vivendi.
He also says that if the UK do not clamp down then we will damage our economy because of it.
In France, a law has been passed that illegal downloaders will receive two warnings about their activity and if these warnings are ignored then they could have their Internet access cut off for up to a year.
In the UK, broadband providers such as BT Broadband and The Carphone Warehouse don’t believe that it is their job to police the Internet or their customers.
Jean-Bernard Levy told a British government sponsored forum on creative industries:
At Vivendi, we are in the content business, we are in the telecom business and there is no internal debate,”
“The priority is not to grow … traffic on the ISPs. The priority is that creators, people who develop content, should find a way (to be rewarded).”
Back in June the Digital Britain report done by Lord Carter it was suggested that repeat offenders should have their broadband speed reduced although no Lord Mandelson is looking at taking this further with temporary disconnection of broadband services for these offenders.
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October 26, 2009
The 50p per month broadband tax that is to be used to help fund next generation fibre optic broadband in the UK has been criticised by The Conservatives who say that it will fail to deliver high speed broadband to every home.
Jeremy Hunt, the shadow Culture Secretary and Nick Herber, the shadow Environment Secretary wrote a column in the Daily Telegraph:
“The incentive for operators to invest is destroyed as everyone focuses not on consumers but how to get more state handout.
The tax has been earmarked to encourage investment in modern fibre optic networks – but telecom operators will have no incentive to make any investment of their own if there is the chance to tap into subsidy.”
They belive that the technology providers will just want handouts from the giovernment to help fund the new technology instead of investing in it themselves.
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