SamKnows

BT Broadband has announced plans to upgrade the connection speeds of its existing customers - as long as they sign up for another twelve months. The firm’s using ADSL2+ technology that should enable it to more than double the (potential) speed of its network without digging up any roads.

OFCOM have today announced the conclusion of their review and consultation(s) on the price regulation framework applied to BT Openreach. This increases the price ceiling applied to the rental of copper loops by providers of local loop unbundled (LLU) services.

Ireland’s draft Broadcasting Bill includes provision to extend TV licence fee payments to cover Internet access - and it’s soon set to become law. Even devices capable of picking up YouTube appear to be included in the Broadcasting Act 2009’s definition of “television.”

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

With the upcoming launch of their new HYLAS satellite Avanti are promoting satellite broadband as the solution to a universal broadband service. In a Daily Mail article a price point of £15/month is suggested which is well below the £47/month for a 2M/512k service with 15 GB download offered by Avanti via the Scottish Government’s

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

BT has launched bundles of services following relaxation of constraints by OFCOM. Business and Residential bundles are offered, typically with 12, 18 or 24 month contracts and featuring various combinations of broadband, voice calls, line rental, TV and mobile services.
As an example an entry level home broadband service is discounted to £0 per month for

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

We all thought we’d left pay-as-you-go Internet behind back when we said goodbye to dial-up connections. But over in the States, if Time Warner Cable (TWC) has its way, what it’s now calling “consumption-based billing” could be making a comeback. But there’s a problem: people just don’t want it.
TWC is having difficulty finding volunteers in

It had people scratching their heads back in 2005 as to where the reported ‘synergies’ were and so news that eBay is to dispose of internet telephony business Skype next year is not entirely surprising. It comes at a crossroads for the internet telephony company, however, as it tries to convince mobile operators to allow

Virgin Media has launched its ‘V Stuff’ suite of broadband subscriber features with the announcement of a new, inclusive back up service which allows customers to set up online photo albums and order up to 100 prints per month for free.
Rival back up services normally start with a free low entry level of 5Gb total storage (BT),

The ‘bill shock’ often associated with a trip abroad could be eased from this July as new European rules are due to be put in place that will limit roaming charges to 1 Euro per Mb. Then, within two years, the legislation will impose a further cap on operators of 50 cents per Mb.
A spokesperson

Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse is quoted in the Sunday Times complaining about likely price rises for BT’s local loop unbundled services. OFCOM’s consultation on Openreach pricing closed on Friday after a 2-week extension, so Dunstone is maintaining his lobbying pressure.
OFCOM’s consultation showed Openreach failing to make a commercial return on some products either now

O2 is to provide mobile broadband contracts with inclusive “free” laptops as part of a new Pay Monthly deal from the end of this month. Two Samsung models – the NC10 mini-laptop, shown below, and R510 laptop, will be available online and in O2 stores nationwide, from 27 February 2009.
Two different 24 month contracts will be

At a recent LTE summit Hank Kafka, vice president of network architecture for AT&T, said that ”an LTE network running at full capacity on a 5 x 5 MHz channel could deliver 1 megabyte of capacity to a user at the cost of 0.10 euros” in other words just under 10p per MByte or £100 per GByte.

TalkTalk is launching an ‘Emergency Plan’ today which gives existing customers six months internet connection and access to their TalkTalk home phone plan for free, leaving them to pay just the line rental each month.
The company claims it has been considering for the past couple of months how it can help customers who are having

Sky unveiled quarterly figures which it suggests makes it the country’s fastest growing broadband provider and warned rivals that it feels there is still much growth yet to come through converting more of its 9.4m satellite television customers to its broadband offering.
The company has maintained fourth place in the UK market (behind BT, Virgin Media

Sky customers are the least likely to switch their ISP, independent research from Strategy Analytics reveals.
The American research company found that, despite most UK consumers reporting satisfaction with their existing ISP, 70% would consider churning in favour of a rival supplier if the right deal were on offer. Crucially, speed is the most important factor

O2 Broadband are offerring 3 months free service up to the end of January for subscribers to their Premium and Pro “up to 20M” LLU services, costing £9.79 and £17.13 per month respectively to O2 customers and a fiver more to non-customers. The O2 customer discount includes PAYG mobile users subject to a £10 minimum top-up

The Vat reduction was passed on by most major ISPs at the end of last year with the notable exceptions of TalkTalk and Sky, and it looks likely to stay that way for the time being.
TalkTalk initially told SamKnows it had not immediately passed on the reduction because it was working on increasing its £4