SamKnows

Something very unusual has started to happen in the UK over the past couple of years and it is has been happening in Scandinavia too. Alcatel-Lucent, which rolls out broadband networks and switching equipment across the UK for the likes of BT, among several others, has started to receive an increasing amount of calls for

Within two years BT Business will be making more from selling software services than monthly broadband connection fees. In fact, its figures suggest it could be making three to four times as much per user by selling software as the connection it runs across.
That is the bold prediction of Jerry Thompson, Director of Products and

If you’ve not got time to read the full 245 pages of Digital Britain, Samknows.com is here to help you understand what it means for the country’s online future. Because it’s a special occasion we’ve got our first ever interview with Samknows co-founder Alex Salter.

Zen Internet is to introduce a 20Mbps package for both new and existing users. Both business and residential customers will be moved over to the faster service as and when it is available, thought to be at the end of summer.
Using elements of BT’s 21st Century Network and ADSL2+ broadband technology, the 20Mbps package will

The man in charge of the UK’s biggest ISP says that, when it comes to preventing illegal file-sharing, too much attention is being paid to peer-to-peer networking and the role ISPs can play to stop it. Speaking ahead of the impending final Digital Britain report, Charles Dunstone said “we need to be careful that politicians do not get talked into putting legislation in place that, in the end, ends up looking stupid.”

At around the same time as Sir Alan tells one would-be Apprentice ‘you’re fired’ tonight, Phorm will be launching what it claims has always been the ‘missing piece’ in its ‘rounded offering’.
However, one can only imagine what the business guru would have to say to Phorm if he were there in person. With six months

Spotify has been pressured for months to seal its legitimacy and sign up for a PRS for Music licence and SamKnows can now reveal that the hugely successful music streaming service has agreed terms with the UK body which represents music writers and publishers.
Although Spotify’s Chief Technology Officer, Andreas Ehn, would only coyly reveal last

Analysis of the European mobile broadband market by Ronan de Renesse, Senior Analyst at Screen Digest, points to a marked slowdown in growth in the next two years.

Vodafone and O2 can breathe a sigh of relief. A Government spectrum farming report has decided that neither company should be forced to give up any of its most valuable mobile broadband spectrum. However, the carrot of spectrum released by switching off analogue tv in 2012 remains in front of the pair to tempt them

Sky has launched a scathing attack on the BBC and the BBC Trust over the proposed Project Canvas which would see BBC, ITV and BT collaboration on a set top box which would bring online video content to the living room - essentially a Freeview box but with iPlayer-style functionality.
Sky’s response to the BBC Trust

A future Conservative government would build Digital Britain with an injection of more common sense and new powers at local government level as well as encouraging community groups to petition local authorities for fibre. Far more controversially, though, Ed Vaizey, Shadow Minister for the Creative Industries, reveals the Conservatives would give private investors access to

AOL is relaunching its home page as the only place where UK surfers can check their mail and log on to multiple social networks automatically from one location.
Curiously, the new homepage is not yet available to all visitors, despite today’s announcement. It is instead being rolled out so that within a couple of weeks all

The deal is done. Carphone Warehouse has bought Tiscali’s UK assets for £235m which it claims makes TalkTalk the largest residential broadband provider in the UK with a combined subscriber base of 4.25m.
SamKnows queried TalkTalk’s maths, given that BT claims to have 4.6m subscribers. TalkTalk’s rationale, it explains, is that of these BT users 700,000

First they were, then they weren’t, then everyone thought they might be again but they weren’t but now, finally, Carphone Warehouse is being reported to have made an informal offer of £275m for Tiscali’s UK assets.
This is believed to be way below the price Tiscali had been seeking – it turned down an offer for

OFCOM has published its Market Review for the last quarter of 2008 showing a 2.1% increase in residential and small business broadband connections over the previous quarter.

Virgin Media’s quarterly figures released today show it is just as susceptible as competitors to the general slowdown in new broadband connections.
For the first three months of 2009 it added 47,300 additional broadband customers to its network, nearly half the 88,400 figure for the corresponding quarter in 2008.
The culprit would appear to be the oft-quoted

Sky’s prediction it could persuade its television customer base to take up its triple play of satellite television, phone and broadband appear to be vindicated with strong growth figures released today for the nine months up to the end of March.
While the leading star of its financials was undoubtedly Sky+ HD boxes surpassing the 1m

While the talk of flat markets was hardly surprising, the biggest news to come out of Carphone Warehouse’s Q4 trading update, released this morning, was confirmation the group will split its retail and telecoms operations.
Analysts and investors have long called on the group to realise there was never much logic behind having a retailer and

TalkTalk has today announced a £50 incentive scheme to attract Tiscali customers concerned over the ISP’s future.
It would appear to be the final stage of a long battle for ownership of Tiscali’s customers which, earlier this month, saw TalkTalk linked once again with the ailing Italian ISP shortly after its shares had been delisted

ITV’s Chief Executive Michael Grade’s warning that the British regulatory system could give American rivals an unfair advantage may be starting to be realised as both Hulu and TV.com admit to holding talks with UK broadcasters and content owners to launch their services here.
With the scrapping of Kangaroo, through which the BBC, Channel 4 and