Broadband should be marketed far more for its benefits, rather than an end in itself, and ISPs should be more creative at coming up with affordable packages which include computers.
That is the summary of Jill Pitt, researcher at Consumer Focus, a body part-funded by government which researches consumer issues. Presenting research at the House of [...]

The fastest home and business boost speed has just been launched in Bournemouth where fibre customers are being offered a 100Mb connection with up to 10 one hour 1Gb ‘boosts’ per month.
Following fibre to the home (FTTH) work in Bournemouth last year by Fibrecity (known at the time as H2O because it lays much of its [...]

If fibre is to reach deeper penetration and small and medium businesses, providers are going to have to start getting better at showing boards how they can pay for faster internet connections through reduced call charges.
So argues Adam Beaumont, Managing Director of AQL which has extended the fibre network it runs to support its Voice [...]

TalkTalk is calling on Ofcom to ban BT, and any other provider, from using ‘rolling contracts’ to hook customers in to long-term contracts.
BT came under heavy criticism yesterday in a Which? report for using contracts which tie consumers in to the service for 18 months and are then renewed at the end of the 18 [...]

A laptop that ‘even your granny’ is supposed to be able to use and which comes with broadband and support for just under £35 per month became available today in a bid to get more silver surfers online.
Andrew Holmes, co-founder of The Broadband Computer Company claims its Alex laptop (named after Alexander Graham Bell, inventor [...]

BT is to open its fibre ducts to allow third parties to roll out their own fibre networks.
In a move its Chief Executive described as ‘unlikely to be the silver bullet that will get fibre in to every home’, the broadband giant has arguable pre-empted future legislation that would have forced it to open its [...]

The Tories have been unveiling their digital ambitions.

Sky’s half yearly results show that although the ISP is outperforming arch rival TalkTalk on net new broadband additions, its rate of acceleration is showing signs of slowing.
Ironically, television seemed to dominate both ISPs’ results for the last half and last quarter of 2009. While TalkTalk publicly acknowledged its sponsorship of the X-Factor of nearly [...]

Virgin Media has hit back at claims from BT that its newly-announced Infinity fibre service is better than the alternative from Virgin Media, particularly on price and upload speeds.
The cable telephone, television and broadband operator has taken the unusual step of going through BT’s claims one by one and also adding a few pointers on [...]

Research published this week suggests that mobile internet browsing is being shunned by three in four mobile users because of concerns over cost and poor service.
Analysts at Essential Research claim that despite hype surrounding the success of the iPhone, and other top of the range smartphones, the mass market is far from feeling comfortable with [...]

BT has Virgin Media firmly in its sites today as it launched its highly-antipicated fibre product, BT Infinity.
With scant details of availability, other than a promise to roll it out to 4 million homes and businesses by the end of the year and 10 million by the summer of 2012, the corporation was concentrating on [...]

The increasing need for bandwidth as companies of all sizes conduct more business through cloud computing lies behind Easynet Connect’s launch this week of a £15k per year uncontended 100Mbps fibre service, according to its Managing Director, Chris Stening.

 
The new service is limited to within the M25 area at the moment but the company is [...]

Be broadband is to launch an up to 40Mb ‘bonded’ ADSL2+ service next month.
The ISP is claiming that uploads speeds should increase to up to 5Mb but is warning that February’s unveiling of the new service will be a soft launch. Bonding two lines together, it warns, may have teething issues, although the service has [...]

You won’t be seeing any more of the Tiscali logo as the brand is officially decommissioned.

The community initiative behind the biggest single Wi-Fi network in the UK is proposing extending its reach even further across South West England – and boosting broadband speeds to boot. But because that’ll put it in competition with BT, which has its own ideas for super-fast broadband in the area, the plans could spell trouble for local businesses.

The BT Group is waging a war on two fronts: versus the Government on one side, battling TalkTalk and Sky on the other.

British broadband, fixed line and mobile prices are among the most competitive in the West, according to research published by Ofcom today.
It has compared the cost of bundling together a fixed line phone with broadband, as well as allowing for moderate mobile phone use and some pay television. The results show that at a price [...]

The pre-Budget report is out and the “broadband tax” is in – meaning the Chancellor has given the green light to a measure that’ll cost British households with fixed lines a minimum of 50 pence each month. This comes as another Commonwealth country is talking about putting a levy on its telecommunications firms instead of its consumers. And it wasn’t the only announcement that concerns Digital Britain in what’s being seen as Alistair Darling’s first real Budget.

Vodafone will see in the New Year with a concerted push to encourage pay-as-you-go customers to use data to coincide with its launch of the iPhone.
Although the network has not announced a date when it is allowed to start selling the iconic smartphone, it is widely believed to be from the first week of January [...]

After BT admitted the only person it’s connected to broadband in a village on the Oxfordshire-Buckinghamshire border is the firm’s own chairman, it’s emerged neighbouring homes could be online as early as next year. However, that won’t be down to the telecoms giant but instead thanks to a local initiative.