First post for GO Broadband
April 17, 2007 by go broadband
This is the first post for the broadband review blog – Go Broadband.
UK broadband must get faster
April 17, 2007 by go broadband
UK broadband providers and telecommunication firms must build faster networks to cope with new web usage needs, an industry group has warned.
The Broadband Stakeholder Group has warned that Britain’s broadband infrastructure is in need of an upgrade if the United Kingdon is not to fall behind competing nations offering broadband. In its report the government advisory group said that uncertainties surrounding next generation broadband must be resolved within the next two years or the digital divide will widen further.
The report says that the UK’s current broadband infrastructure may not be able to meet the increasing demands of both users and content providers. Broadband Stakeholder Group chairman, Kip Meek…
“Broadband is key to the UK economy and has a critical impact on many people’s daily lives. We have a limited window of opportunity: if steps are not taken now to prepare for next generation broadband, then we may well find ourselves in a position where it is too late to catch up.”
According to the broadband report there is little prospect for the widespread deployment of next generation broadband, even though there are significant benefits to the economy, because broadband operators are unable to justify the additional expense.
- BT is looking to speed up the UK broadband infrastructure upto 25 Mbps.
- Virgin Media is planning to increase its cable broadband network to 20 Mbps customers
- Virgin media have been running a pilot broadband test in Kent where they have been offering broadband speeds of upto 50 Mbps.
However, all of these broadband speed increase are nothing when compared to the introduction of EuroDOCSIS 3 into continental Europe which will allow broadband speeds of upto 200 Mbps.
Pipex broadband deal collapse
April 17, 2007 by go broadband
The sale of the broadband provider Pipex is likely to collapse. Carphone Warehouse (who owns Talktalk broadband and AOL broadband) has quit the auction for Pipex, the £350 million internet services provider.
Remaining bidders for the broadband company are understood to include Tiscali the rival Italian-based broadband operator. BSkyB, Orange, BT and Virgin Media had pulled out early in the auction process.
However, with the share price of Pipex broadband internet group falling – since Carphonewarehouse announced it was going to pull out of the bidding for Pipex – other UK broadband providers may re-enter the auction; if the price of Pipex drops enough there is a market-share bargain to be had
Fierce competition in the UK broadband market and consolidation with the sector is likely to be the main reason Pipex is seeking an early exit from the market-place. If Pipex opts to continue as an independent player it will need to spend lots on advertising and keep lowering its broadband prices to remain competitive with the other broadband companies that can afford to subsidise their broadband offering from other parts of the their business.
BT to cut the price of wholesale broadband
April 10, 2007 by go broadband
Bt has announced its intension to cut the price of the broadband services that it sells via wholesale to other UK broadband providers. Result, you could be receiving cheaper broadband pricing by the middle of 2007. BT said it would cut the amount it charges other internet service providers for broadband by 9 per cent on 1 May, which could in turn allow the broadband ISPs to charge consumers less. A BT spokesperson said…
“reduced pricing will help ensure the further growth of a competitive market for broadband services”.
As well as the proposed price cut, BT Wholesale said it is also aiming to introduce speeds of up to 24Mbps by the start of 2008
Cameron Rejali, managing director for products and strategy at BT Wholesale said…
“The new pricing will deliver significant cost savings to our broadband service provider customers and underlines BT’s commitment to maintaining a competitive broadband market.Service providers can also look forward to a nationwide service offering broadband speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s which will start to be made available early next year as part of BT’s 21CN roll out. We will shortly start preparing our exchanges to support the delivery of these higher broadband speeds.”
However, it doesn’t necessarily follow that the price cuts will lead to savings for customers at the end of the line. I guess we’ll have to wait and see but here at Go-Broadband we can definately see at least 5% of the broadband wholesale price savings being passed on to the end-consumer or, at the least, faster broadband services in 2008 for 2007 prices.
Pipex broadband deal with carphone warehouse
April 9, 2007 by go broadband
Carphone Warehouse (owner of talktalk broadband and AOL broadband) is the last remaining company still interested in buying Pipex broadband. Pipex was being auctioned for £450m. But, BTbroadband BSkyB broadband and the UK’s largest internet provider, Virgin Media broadband have all pulled out of the race to buy Pipex, leaving The Carphone Warehouse as the sole bidder.
Charles Dunstone, Carphone’s chief executive, paid only £370m for AOL broadband’s UK operation in 2006 with its 1.5m broadband customers compared with Pipex’s 600,000 subscribers – a similar cost per customer would imply a price tag of only £148m for Pipex.
Pipex broadband shares fell by almost 8% last Monday after Financial Mail reported that Virgin Media broadband and BSkyB broadband had both pulled out of the auction. The broadband company’s shares closed last week at 153/ 4p, valuing the company at £377.5m.
BT broadband had been linked with an acquisition of Pipex broadband in the past, as had Orange and Sky. There has been significant consolidation activity in the broadband sector due to intense price competition.
FREE broadband from Google
April 9, 2007 by go broadband
Google announces free in-home wireless broadband service
Google has announced “Google FREE broadband” with the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)™,. It is a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online broadband connectivity via users’ plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.
Google Co-founder and President Larry Page, a longtime supporter of so-called dark porcelain research and development.
“We’ve got that whole organizing-the-world’s-information thing more or less under control. What’s interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you – not to mention from you.”
For years, data carriers have confronted the “last hundred yards” problem for delivering broadband data from local networks into individual homes. Now Google has successfully devised a “last hundred smelly yards” solution that takes advantage of preexisting plumbing and sewage systems and their related hydraulic data-transmission capabilities.
“There’s actually a thriving little underground community that’s been studying this exact solution for a long time. And today our Toilet ISP team is pleased to be leading the way through the sewers, up out of your toilet and – splat – right onto your PC.”
Users who sign up online for the TiSP broadband system will receive a full home self-installation kit, which includes a spindle of fiber-optic cable, a TiSP wireless router, installation CD and setup guide. Home installation is a simple matter of GFlushing™ the fiber-optic cable down to the nearest TiSP Access Node, then plugging the other end into the broadband/network port of your Google-provided TiSP wireless router. Within sixty minutes, the Access Node’s crack team of Plumbing Hardware Dispatchers (PHDs) should have your internet connection up and running.
According to Marissa Mayer, Google’s Vice President of Search Products and User Experience:
“I couldn’t be more excited about, and am only slightly grossed out by, this remarkable new product. I firmly believe TiSP will be a breakthrough product, particularly for those users who, like Larry himself, do much of their best thinking in the bathroom.”
Interested consumers, contractually obligated partners and deeply skeptical and quietly competitive backbiters can learn more about TiSP at http://www.google.com/tisp/install.html
Press release date – April 1st 2007! 
Go broadband
April 5, 2007 by go broadband
Its odd how Google will not show my new domain as a search result for the look-up phrase. Perhaps putting it in a link name will help. Here goes. .. Find out the latest news and information about broadband at Go broadband.
It will be interesting to see how much influence the keywords in the actual link text have on whether a broadband website gets indexed or not. Have to wait and see. Almost impossible to find the website at the moment.
Over half of UK households use broadband
April 3, 2007 by go broadband
There are some really usefull facts in the latest broadband results published by Ofcom for the UK broadband market. Key highlights from the report:
- broadband has now reached 50 per cent of UK households.
- The broadband penetration figure rose from 39 per cent take-up a year ago – and now more than 13 million homes and SME offices are connected to broadband.
Ofcom has published its latest on the broadband market. The report looks at levels of broadband take-up, usage and the types of services available in the broadband market.
In the seven years since its mass market introduction, broadband has become one of the fastest growing communications technologies. The report shows that over 50% of UK adults now have broadband at home – up from 39% a year ago and a seven-fold increase over the last four years. More than 13 million UK homes and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are now connected to broadband, compared with 9.9 million a year earlier and 330,000 in 2001.
Many new internet users are choosing to go straight to broadband rather than first taking dial-up. According to Ofcom’s research, 23% of people with no internet at home said they were likely to connect in the next year with 76% of those saying they would opt for broadband.
The report also shows that broadband prices are continuing to fall. Speeds of up to 2 Mbit/s were available for £15 a month in 2006, down from £50 in 2003. In 2006 a number of communications providers started offering a broadband service at no extra cost to consumers who took other services in a bundle.
Bundling is an important factor for consumers when choosing an internet service provider (ISP). At the end of 2006, over 40% of all adults with broadband at home took broadband alongside other communications services from the same provider. When asked what the most important factor influencing ISP choice was, the same proportion of broadband users cited the possibility of bundling with other services (27%) as did price (27%).
Other key findings were:
- Broadband speeds continue to rise. The estimated average broadband connection speed was 3.8 Mbit/s at the end of 2006, up from 1.6 Mbit/s at the end of 2005.
- Despite these increases in speed almost half (48%) of residential consumers were unaware of their headline connection speed in February 2007.
- At the end of 2006, one in ten UK adults said they were making calls over the internet via VoIP on their broadband connection, double the proportion that said they did this at the end of 2005. Of these, 14% said they did it daily and a further 30% did so several times per week.
- Around half of broadband users have accessed online audio or video content at least once; 29% listen to or download online audio and 26% watch video clips online on a weekly basis.
- Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) continues to grow. In February 2007 there were 1.7m residential and SME unbundled broadband lines, accounting for over 10% of all connections compared to 2% a year earlier.
- Ofcom’s research showed that 21% of all UK adults owned a Wi-Fi enabled laptop in February 2007 and over one third of those had used public Wi-Fi hotspots to access the internet. In September 2006 there were around 12,000 public hotspots in the UK, a 32% increase on the previous year.
- One in three UK adults said they owned an internet-enabled mobile phone in February 2007 and half of those had used their mobile to go online.
- In 2006 residential and SME connections generated £1.84bn in revenue for broadband providers – a fifteen-fold increase in six years.
Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards said:
“With over half of UK adults now using broadband at home, we have reached a very significant milestone in the development of broadband Britain. Consumers are responding positively to the competition and innovation that the UK market now offers.”
The full report is available at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/broadband_rpt/
Broadband for mac
March 31, 2007 by go broadband
If you are looking for broadband for your mac laptop or computer then you will soon be able to find the answer at broadband4mac and broadband for mac
These two mac broadband only websites will be focusing solely on the best broadband providers in the UK. They’ll be researching the broadband market-place and compare the best broadband deals available. I’ll keep you posted.
The power of VoIP
March 29, 2007 by go broadband
One of the best things about Broadband is the fact that it has so much more capability to carry large volumes of data then the old 56K dial-up internet connections. So much so that you can surf the internet and make telephone calls at the same time.
However, in the past 18-24 months things have got even better – you can now make phone calls via your computer and broadband connection to anybody, anywhere in the World for !FREE! Such is the power of VoIP. read on ….
VoIP o r Voice over Internet Protocol is a technology that allows for the transmission of voice conversations over the broadband internet, or a similar network. Using an Internet connection to make phone calls has a number of advantages – firstly, you avoid using a landline or network and therefore avoid paying costly service charges and/or line rental, effectively allowing you to make ‘free’ calls.
For other Broadband Glossary terms see: www.go-broadband.co.uk/broadband-glossary
Another benefit of not having to use a network or landline is that there is no problem with signal strength as such, as an Internet connection – any connection – effectively functions as the phone’s ’signal’. This means that voice calls are generally clearer and are of a better quality, although this is entirely dependent upon the strength of the connection.
This also allows for greater mobility abroad, as any Internet connection will allow you to make and receive incoming calls for no additional cost, ‘roaming’ charges. Most VoIP phones include features such as voicemail, call waiting and three-way calling, features that traditional mobile network providers usually charge for.
Since VoIP technology uses the Internet to transmit information, more and more VoIP handsets come with services which allow users to use Instant Messenger services such as MSN, AIM, GoogleTalk and Skype. There are an increasing number of Wi-Fi-enabled hotspots in urban areas in which VoIP users can make full use of their phone’s functions.
Since VoIP technology relies on an Internet connection, this too, has its drawbacks. The quality and clarity of a phone is reliant on a fast and secure connection, and although connection speeds of broadband ISPs are generally improving, problems with latency can sometimes result in a reduced quality of the call. Also if you experience a power cut in your home, you will be unable to make any calls on your VoIP phone as its Internet connection has been disabled.
To combat this, some modems are now equipped with chargeable back-up batteries which can temporarily power the modem, making sure that the connection to the Internet remains active. Some business providers of VoIP install dedicated phone connections for VoIP handsets to use in case of a local Internet connection not being available.
Another major disadvantage is in that as the calls on a VoIP are not made on a local line or network, it makes it hard to connect emergency calls to appropriate call centres, although
The number of mobile handsets that currently support VoIP is comparatively small compared with the rest of the mobile phone market, but there is every possibility that commercial versions will become available in the near future. The current providers of VoIP services in the UK are Skype, Vonage, GoogleTalk, BT, and Orange.
Skype
Skype is currently the biggest UK VoIP provider. Skype is a software program, available as a secure downloaded from their website, compatible with any computer platform that allows free calls via VoIP to other Skype members and cheap calls to normal landlines via the Internet, whilst also allowing IM, video calling and SMS/texting.
Calls can be made whilst sat at your computer, using a headset, or with a variety of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones (that operate in Wi-Fi hotspots) and cordless handsets available from the Skype website, where credit can also be purchased.
Vonage
Vonage is a leading provider of VoIP services, and is known simply as ‘the Broadband Phone Company’. Vonage’s Residential Premium Unlimited and Small Business Unlimited calling plans offer consumers unlimited local and long distance calling, and features such as call waiting, call forwarding and voicemail are all inclusive and part of one monthly rate.
Vonage provide phone adapters with their packages which act as interfaces between your modem, router and your phone or handset – this transfers any calls made from the phone line straight to the broadband connection. For customers who do not have a router installed, Vonage have an adapter with a built-in router. Connections are made through an Ethernet Broadband connection, meaning that if you have a BT phone line with a USB modem, this will have to be replaced with an Ethernet modem.
GoogleTalk
GoogleTalk is similar to Skype in that it exists in the form of a downloadable application that allows users to make free calls to each other over the Internet, typically through a microphone headset. Signing in to GoogleTalk requires you to register for a free GoogleMail email account. Google Talk is currently free, as the program is a beta, and is currently being mass-tested across the Internet.
BT Broadband Talk
Broadband Talk is BT’s entry into the VoIP market, offering free evening and weekend calls, as well as cheap rates for all other times (with unlimited UK calls available for under £5), cheap international rates and a reliable connection, guaranteeing clear reception every time.
New Broadband Talk phone numbers will begin with a ‘05? code and will work over a wired or wireless broadband connection via the BT Home Hub or an existing broadband router. BT Broadband Talk requires a touchtone phone; most corded and cordless phones are compatible, but be sure to check BT’s website to see if you can sign up first. Everything else required for installation is available in the welcome pack.
Similar to Vonage, BT provide customers with phone adapters to link up to their existing connection, with router-less phone adapters for those who do not require a router pre-installed.
Orange Unique Phone
Unique Phone from Orange is the mobile network and broadband company’s converged mobile and VoIP service. Unique Phone handsets operate both on a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) Wi-Fi connection in the home, and the regular mobile network outside.
Much like BT Broadband Talk, Unique Phone allows for calls to be made within the home to other Orange mobiles and landlines for free, as they are routed through the Orange Livebox over an Orange broadband connection. The Livebox is a wireless hub, allowing for six devices (computers, laptops, Unique Phones) to share the same connection.
The Orange Unique Phone is available for £50 a month, and includes all the features provided by Orange’s Unlimited Broadband package, as well as 1300 free mobile minutes.