Broadband News

News, views and analysis

OFCOM addresses "small print" issue

22 Dec 2008 | 20.23 Europe/London
OFCOM has issued guidance to communications providers on how it thinks the law applies to the extra charges consumers may have to pay on top of their usual bill.

BBC iPlayer (beta) for Mac and Linux

19 Dec 2008 | 18.43 Europe/London
The BBC is bringing the download version of the iPlayer (as opposed to the streaming video version) to Mac and Linux users by using Adobe's

Phorm UK head leaves ‘by mutual consent’ as new board is put in place

18 Dec 2008 | 18.40 Europe/London

The boardroom comings and goings at Phorm continue as the UK Chief Executive, Hugo Drayton, left today ‘by mutual consent’.

Virgin 50Mb reaction: Be announces 48Mb trials and TalkTalk says minimum speed’s vital too

17 Dec 2008 | 12.10 Europe/London

No sooner had the ink dried on the multiple column inches devoted to Virgin Media’s 50Mbps service launch, then Be announced results of a 48Mbps trial near Paddington, London.

EU approves recovery plan with broadband element

15 Dec 2008 | 20.28 Europe/London
The EU Council last week agreed the

Virgin launch 50 Mbits/s cable service for £51/month

15 Dec 2008 | 20.26 Europe/London
Virgin Media have launched their 50 Mbits/s downstream cable service, which will will be rolled out country-wide over the next six months.

BT Phorm trial a ‘success’ – ‘move towards deployment’ expected soon

15 Dec 2008 | 18.28 Europe/London

BT’s trial of the controversial targeted advertising platform, Phorm, has ended with both parties reporting success and a commitment to ‘move towards deployment’.

EU sees broadband role in economic recovery

06 Dec 2008 | 13.02 Europe/London
The European Commission's recently announced

Phorm denies London changes mean giving up on America

05 Dec 2008 | 16.25 Europe/London

Phorm is refuting suggestions that strategic differences have caused four senior board directors to quit and is also denying the departures show it is giving up on the America market.

Openreach set to receive the nod for wholesale price hike

05 Dec 2008 | 14.34 Europe/London
Openreach look likely to receive permission to increase some wholesale prices, subject to the outcome of an OFCOM consultation

New rules for selling broadband speed, 3 calls for mobile transparency

05 Dec 2008 | 14.28 Europe/London
A new Ofcom code of conduct comes in to effect today, requiring participating ISPs to provide potential customers with an accurate estimate of the speed they will achieve, rather than give a general, vague promise of ‘up to’ the maximum speed possible.

Kangaroo opponents supported by Competition Commission’s interim findings

03 Dec 2008 | 18.08 Europe/London
Project Kangaroo was dealt a potentially fatal blow today when the Competition Commission unveiled preliminary findings which agreed with critics that it could curtail competition in the video on demand (VOD) industry.

Next Generation Access down under

30 Nov 2008 | 16.04 Europe/London
The Australian Government should shortly be

OFCOM launches new consumer guides

30 Nov 2008 | 16.00 Europe/London
OFCOM has added consumer guides on Slamming and Unsolicited calls to their website.

EU mobile broadband roaming charges to come down next summer - but not by enough, claims 3

29 Nov 2008 | 11.42 Europe/London
The EU’s plans to slash mobile broadband roaming charges from next July has met with mixed reactions from the telecommunications industry with some saying the new rules are draconian and others, such as 3, saying they do not go far enough.

Rounded down prices and better download limits likely responses to December’s VAT reduction

28 Nov 2008 | 17.38 Europe/London
Next Monday is shaping up to start off one of the most interesting weeks the broadband market will have seen all year as ISPs grapple with how to pass on the 2.

NextGen '08 conference round up

21 Nov 2008 | 20.45 Europe/London
The NextGen '08 conference held earlier this month in Manchester brought together a range of opinions and speakers on the subject of Next Generation Access (NGA).

BBC to stream top two channels live

20 Nov 2008 | 23.26 Europe/London
Over the course of this year ISPs have seen peak demands on their networks with the BBC iPlayer traffic surging at the time of the Olympics and the US Election.

Run of redundancies ends as City welcomes Carphone demerger review, and Sky refinances

20 Nov 2008 | 16.31 Europe/London
A run of gloomy financial interim reports was brought to an end this week when Carphone Warehouse did not follow the trend in announcing job cuts but instead hinted at demerging its retail and teleco operations.

Sky's loss-leading broadband sees subscriptions rise

17 Nov 2008 | 23.24 Europe/London
Sky, or to be precise British Sky Broadcasting Group plc, recently announced their first quarter results to September 30th.

Livingston wobbles about BT fibre project

17 Nov 2008 | 15.56 Europe/London
In a recent interview BT's CEO Ian Livingston suggests that the recession and shareholder pressure may jeopardise plans to spend £1.

TalkTalk updates broadband packages to offer "boost" options

14 Nov 2008 | 00.12 Europe/London
Talk Talk have announced revisions to its broadband and phone bundles available from Tuesday November 18th.

BT publishes results and announces job cuts

14 Nov 2008 | 00.10 Europe/London
BT hit the headlines today with a planned 10,000 job losses, mainly from contract and agency staff. The announcement came along with the

Businesses value service above cost

14 Nov 2008 | 00.03 Europe/London
Research from Zen Internet shows that, despite the gloomy economic outlook, businesses are prioritising broadband service over cost.

Virgin Media to trim workforce

11 Nov 2008 | 20.14 Europe/London
Reports suggest that Virgin Media plan to cut their workforce by 15% by 2012 as part of a plan to increase cashflow.

Kangaroo chief defends service, then resigns

11 Nov 2008 | 20.13 Europe/London
After defending the proposed Kangaroo multi-channel IPTV catch-up service to the Competition Commission, Ashleigh Highfield has resigned to join Microsoft.

BT tweaks wholesale broadband pricing

11 Nov 2008 | 20.11 Europe/London
BT have issued notification of Wholesale price changes that will take effect on Dec 1st and Jan 1st 2009.

BT Wholesale release a further 1200 activation dates for WBC

09 Nov 2008 | 16.47 Europe/London
At the tail end of last week BT Wholesale published an update to it's Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) rollout data.

Carphone reveals why it is leaving Tiscali purchase to Sky

04 Nov 2008 | 20.40 Europe/London
Carphone Warehouse has confirmed to SamKnows it is no longer pursuing a purchase of Tiscali, leaving Sky as the sole suitor for the Anglo-Italian ISP that has been for sale throughout most of 2008.

Orange snubs Phorm, but Virgin Media and Carphone still on track

03 Nov 2008 | 11.56 Europe/London
Although the customer tracking advertising platform Phorm received a blow this week when it was publicly snubbed by Orange, it can take solace that Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse have assures Sam Knows they are keen to carry on evaluating the technology.

O2 set to launch the "Litmus" app store

28 Oct 2008 | 00.08 Europe/London
Mobile broadband is not just about the handset and the connection but also what people can do with that connection.

Mobile broadband bundles fuelling explosion in netbook market

23 Oct 2008 | 21.25 Europe/London
Mobile broadband demand has rocketed sales of cut down laptops, called netbooks, which within a year of launch now account for 10% of the European PC market.

Ofcom team up with SamKnows to monitor broadband performance

15 Oct 2008 | 17.43 Europe/London
Ofcom and SamKnows have joined forces to help give consumers the most accurate picture ever of broadband performance across the UK.

Be offers line tweaking options to end users

08 Oct 2008 | 21.18 Europe/London
Be, the O2-owned ISP, has begun allowing its users to customised their broadband connections to prioritise the line towards their favoured activities.

Virgin Media goes mobile

06 Oct 2008 | 23.12 Europe/London
Virgin Media, the country’s second largest fixed line broadband operator, launched a mobile broadband service last week.

Call for new Performance Monitoring volunteers on Tiscali, Orange and O2

30 Sep 2008 | 22.44 Europe/London
We're currently deploying a large batch of Performance Monitoring units that will form the basis of our next report.

Phorm goes live with BT

30 Sep 2008 | 00.00 Europe/London
After months of hype, public demonstrations, threatened legal action, a government review and recurring BT promises of a service “in the next few weeks”; Phorm finally launches on BT today under the Webwise brand name.

Local government key to next generation broadband roll out

23 Sep 2008 | 19.28 Europe/London
Local government is going to be the lynchpin to rolling out future generation broadband networks, according to BT.

Carphone considering Tiscali purchase (again)

22 Sep 2008 | 20.49 Europe/London
Carphone Warehouse is reported to still be in talks to buy Tiscali. The Italian-owned ISP had been hoping to set up an auction between Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse this summer but Vodafone pulled out of the process, believing Tiscali had valued itself too highly.

Government say Phorm is legal, police shrug off case

22 Sep 2008 | 20.48 Europe/London
The British government has confirmed to the European Commission that the controversial ad-serving business, Phorm, is legal.

ISPs and broadcasters leap in to attack Kangaroo

19 Sep 2008 | 12.34 Europe/London
Broadband providers and entertainment companies are queuing up to criticise BBC Worldwide, ITV and C4 coming together to form a proposed joint online catch-up service, Kangaroo.

Report published on the future of next generation broadband

12 Sep 2008 | 21.33 Europe/London
Providing a nationwide network of next generation broadband could cost as much as £29bn, according to the influential telecommunications industry body, the Broadband Stakeholder’s Group (BSG).

Next generation broadband to skip a generation?

12 Sep 2008 | 21.22 Europe/London
Remarks by the Chair of Ofcom’s Consumer Panel that ‘next generation’ broadband should skip a generation to prioritise those without broadband today have been met with a muted response from the two companies that could potentially build the required nationwide network.

NebuAd CEO resigns

04 Sep 2008 | 21.32 Europe/London
NebuAd, one of two arch exponents of tracking user behaviour - via their ISP - to deliver more targeted adverts, has suffered a major blow with the departure of its CEO, Bob Dykes.

BBC iPlayer issues affected TalkTalk's Huawei modems too

02 Sep 2008 | 22.34 Europe/London
BBC engineers have used the lull after frenzied downloading and streaming of the Olympics to fix a bug with iPlayer that was causing BT Home Hubs and O2 and Be wireless routers to reset.

Thus deal looks almost certain for C&W

01 Sep 2008 | 21.59 Europe/London
Thus, owner of Demon Internet, looks set to finally be owned by Cable & Wireless.

Despite the board rejecting C&W’s offer of 165p per share, which was increased to 180p at the end of June, it has now virtually conceded defeat.

Orange relaunches with free broadband for all of its mobile customers

30 Aug 2008 | 19.58 Europe/London
Orange will relaunch its home broadband service online on Monday with an offer of free broadband for all its pay monthly mobile customers.

DNS flaw not a problem for UK surfers

23 Aug 2008 | 08.41 Europe/London
A flaw in the way web addresses are served to computers, which allows criminals to redirect traffic to scam sites, is just starting to be used to trap international bank customers in to parting with account details.

Would you like a laptop with that?

22 Aug 2008 | 22.28 Europe/London
The marketeers efforts to capture the 40% of households that don't have broadband continue, using the lure of a "free" (ie inclusive) laptop tied in with a very long contract term on 3G mobile broadband (or in some cases fixed line broadband).

ISPs concerned at game developer’s “strong arm” approach

21 Aug 2008 | 20.46 Europe/London
The gaming industry is coming after illegal downloaders and the bad news for ISPs is it appears the sector is not trying the educational route taken by the music industry.

BBC iPlayer changes set to increase the pressure on ISPs

21 Aug 2008 | 14.23 Europe/London
The BBC is changing a number of aspects of their iPlayer TV and Radio service. Originally conceived as a download "catch up" service using P2P services it is now largely used in streaming mode, no doubt reflecting the technical ability and attention span of the viewing population.

OFCOM research theoretical limits of copper

21 Aug 2008 | 14.19 Europe/London
OFCOM have published the results of research into how fast data can be transmitted over a copper local loop.

BT Wholesale push back WBC activation dates

14 Aug 2008 | 03.53 Europe/London
BT Wholesale's recently launched WBC (Wholesale Broadband Connect) service has suffered a setback this week as 440 exchange activation dates have been delayed and a further 320 have been removed from the schedule all together.

Virgin Media disconnections improving as it looks to take 50Mbps to the high street

08 Aug 2008 | 05.42 Europe/London
Broadband is continuing to be the lead growth area for Virgin Media according to its second quarter figures which were released this morning with a reminder that the brand is gearing up to launch 50mb broadband later in the year.

BT still set for Phorm trial whilst EU asks, "is it legal?"

08 Aug 2008 | 05.39 Europe/London
BT is still due to press ahead with its 'technical trial' of Phorm, despite a letter from the European Commission to the government asking for reassurance, before the end of the month, that the system does not contravene EU data laws.

Now available: Our first Performance Monitoring report

02 Aug 2008 | 09.08 Europe/London
I am pleased to announce that our first Performance Monitoring report is ready (finally!).

The report is available in PDF format using the link below.

Green light for 300 free FTTH phone connections at Ebbsfleet

01 Aug 2008 | 14.22 Europe/London
OFCOM has given consent for BT to offer free / discounted phone services to up to 300 homes on the Ebbsfleet development.

Carphone slashes broadband expectations

01 Aug 2008 | 14.18 Europe/London
After conceding to SamKnows that the property slump was having an impact on its broadband sales Carphone Warehouse has now roughly halved the number of new customers it expects to connect this year, from 400,000 to between 200,000 to 250,000.

Summer mobile broadband battle ground

01 Aug 2008 | 14.16 Europe/London
O2 has kicked off a mobile broadband promotions war which will dominate broadband deals this summer and early autumn.

Analysys Mason: Forget Wi-Max

30 Jul 2008 | 17.46 Europe/London
Mobile broadband is set to go from strength to strength but you can pretty much write off Wi-Max networks, according to the latest research from telecommunications researchers at Analysys Mason.

Government consults on file sharing

30 Jul 2008 | 17.38 Europe/London
The elegantly named Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform is consulting on how best to address illicit P2P file-sharing via a 3-month

P4P - A constructive engagement with P2P?

28 Jul 2008 | 17.14 Europe/London
P2P (peer to peer) traffic is seldom out of the news either because its most popular use is for pirating copyright material or because ISPs are throttling it to reduce the impact on their network.

Roll your own fibre?

26 Jul 2008 | 13.14 Europe/London
The BBC News site recently discussed the concept of communities left out of plans for "superfast broadband" to take the initiative and set up their own infrastructure.

Thawing of relationship between ISPs and music industry

24 Jul 2008 | 18.20 Europe/London
The ice cold relationship between the music industry and the ISPs it expects to police the internet is showing signs of thawing, but only a little and only after the threat of government legislation.

Mobile broadband take-up set to surge for late adopters

24 Jul 2008 | 09.49 Europe/London
Late adopters are going to treble mobile broadband penetration over the next five years as more than one in three of net newcomers foregoes a fixed line contract in favour of a go-anywhere broadband dongle.

Entanet's WBC launch encounters some teething problems

23 Jul 2008 | 10.44 Europe/London
The introduction of BT's 21CN network and Wholesale Broadband Connect (WBC) has caused unexpected problems for some Entanet customers who have found their connection being migrated over to the new system.

Tiscali - BT feud over marketing letter escalates

22 Jul 2008 | 16.30 Europe/London
Last week we broke the news of a

Low key protests but BT and Phorm are not yet in the clear

18 Jul 2008 | 22.13 Europe/London
BT reiterated its intention to roll out behavioural targeting technology from Phorm at its AGM this week as protesters outside the event admitted they were disappointed with the turn out of privacy campaigners.

Performance monitoring progress update

17 Jul 2008 | 21.27 Europe/London
We've been rather quiet on the progress of the Performance Monitoring project we're carrying out, and for that I apologise.

BT letter to Tiscali customers raises further privacy concerns

16 Jul 2008 | 16.10 Europe/London
BT have caused a bit of a stir this week by mailing a personalised letter to current or former Tiscali group broadband customers (these include Pipex, Freedom2Surf and Nildram).

Fibre to the home - what might it cost ?

16 Jul 2008 | 14.12 Europe/London
Yesterday's news about FTTH created a stir, but what might a fibre service cost ?

Part of the answer is already in the public domain, from BT Openreach and BT Wholesale announcements relating to the Ebbsfleet pilot.

BT to roll out FTTH/FTTC to 10 million homes by 2012

15 Jul 2008 | 08.04 Europe/London
BT have today announced plans to roll out a £1.

Phorm CEO blames small minority for opposition

15 Jul 2008 | 07.32 Europe/London
Ahead of tomorrow's crunch BT AGM where online privacy campaigners are vowing to protest and report the company to the police for running tests on a small group of users' accounts without permission, the CEO of behavioural advertising technology company, Phorm, has been defending its technology.

US Senate hearing draws a blank on online advertising

11 Jul 2008 | 22.02 Europe/London
After its prime billing as the day NebuAd, Microsoft and Google would get a severe grilling from the US Senate, this week's two hour hearing on online privacy proved a rather damp squib.

Entanet to launch BT based ADSL2+ services next week

11 Jul 2008 | 09.18 Europe/London
Entanet launches their "2Plus" range of broadband services on Tuesday 15th July. These are variable rate ADSL2+ products that will connect to the telephone exchange at speeds as high as 24 Mbits/s or as low as 288 kbits/s depending on line length, interference, extension wiring and the usual constraints of physics.

Sky begin FTTC trial

10 Jul 2008 | 22.30 Europe/London
Sky (Easynet) are reportedly trialling a Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) system in East London, which according to

EU accused of using 'back door' to sneak in illegal file sharing

08 Jul 2008 | 19.06 Europe/London
The EU has introduced an amendment to a telecoms law which campaigners and IT lawyers fear could bring in the controversial "three strikes and you're out" approach to file sharers.

Announcing SamKnows Connect - a new suite of web services

08 Jul 2008 | 09.39 Europe/London
Long time readers of the site will be aware that our Availability Checker is available as an XML web service, and this web service is used extensively by the comparison websites, amongst others.

BT Wholesale's iPlate enters the market

05 Jul 2008 | 17.10 Europe/London
BT's patent pending iPlate is becoming available to end users via Ebay (search for

YouTube ruling highlights gulf between UK and USA on privacy

04 Jul 2008 | 16.10 Europe/London
In the same week that BBC Radio One and the Guardian put out an appeal to hear from UK web users who had received a letter from Virgin Media warning of illegal file downloading on their account (with tips on how to avoid it), the American courts took a far more draconian stance on privacy.

Delayed O2/Be LLU activation dates - updated

04 Jul 2008 | 14.41 Europe/London
We've received an awful lot of emails over the past few days from people keen to find out when Be Unlimited and O2 will be offering services in their area.

More fibre in your diet

04 Jul 2008 | 09.30 Europe/London
Yesterday the Guardian had a pull-out "Optical Fibre" supplement whilst Ofcom's Chief Executive was talking to a conference in London about "super-fast broadband".

WiMax - don't hold your breath

02 Jul 2008 | 21.40 Europe/London
There's a lot of talk of WiMax currently, largely originating from company PR departments hoping to recover their development costs or sell lots of WiMax chips and devices.

Virgin rapped by ASA over speed claims

02 Jul 2008 | 20.10 Europe/London
The Advertising Standards Authority has upheld a complaint from BT that Virgin Media's recent Hate to Wait campaign was misleading.

Free broadband model set to hit the US

01 Jul 2008 | 20.31 Europe/London
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently announced plans for a free broadband service to cover the country.

Unrest in South Derbyshire

01 Jul 2008 | 13.41 Europe/London
South Derbyshire District Council have for some time now being raising questions about the standard of broadband provision in their district and challenging BT to address the problem.

Kangaroo referred to monopolies commission

30 Jun 2008 | 17.25 Europe/London
Kangaroo, the television catch-up and video on demand service being jointly developed by the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 has been referred to the Competition Commission by the Office of Fair Trading.

Does YouTube's extended video trial explain Google's net neutrality stance?

28 Jun 2008 | 13.47 Europe/London
YouTube is synonymous with amateur shaky footage of high school pranks and skateboarding dogs but that might be about to change, at least partially; and that could cause a headache for ISPs.

Scotland addresses broadband notspots

27 Jun 2008 | 12.15 Europe/London
The Scottish Government has awarded a £3.

Illegal music download deal looking increasingly unlikely

27 Jun 2008 | 10.01 Europe/London
Despite hopes being raised at the recent London Calling event where ISPs met representatives from the music industry, the two sides would seem as diametrically opposed as ever on how to deal with unauthorised file sharing, particularly on who should pay to combat the problem.

Entanet retailers walk the advertising tightrope - Updated

26 Jun 2008 | 20.38 Europe/London
Entanet's retailers have become popular ISPs with broadband enthusiasts in part due to their well defined monthly download allowances and lack of complex traffic profiling systems.

We're hiring!

22 Jun 2008 | 21.56 Europe/London
Yes that's right, in order to support our ever increasing developments we're hiring a new full-time programmer.

H2O: "Six to ten" towns and cities due to follow Dundee and Bournemouth with sewer fibre

20 Jun 2008 | 20.28 Europe/London
The Victorians probably did not realise that the sewers they built would one day provide a potential means for rolling out fibre across the country.

Google to develop tools to reveal ISP traffic throttling

17 Jun 2008 | 23.34 Europe/London
Google's Senior Policy Director, Richard Whitt, has revealed that the web giant is working on tools that will reveal to broadband users whether their service is being 'throttled' to allow some online services to be prioritised over others.

OFCOM revises the "tag on the line" resolution procedure

14 Jun 2008 | 12.38 Europe/London
OFCOM have tweaked the process for handling the situation where a customer finds they cannot order broadband due to a "tag on the line".

Fibre trial in Ebbsfleet - More Fogg than analysis

14 Jun 2008 | 12.30 Europe/London
The BBC News website reports criticism by analyst Ian Fogg that BT Openreach's forthcoming fibre trial at Ebbsfleet will be "too slow".

Carphone Warehouse attributes broadband downturn to housing slump

13 Jun 2008 | 17.25 Europe/London
Carphone Warehouse believes a slowdown in broadband connections is down to the housing slump rather than an indication we have moved to a predominantly 'switcher' market.

BT's Home IT Support launch 'Broadband Accelerator' service

13 Jun 2008 | 14.28 Europe/London
BT's Home IT support service has added a new service to improve broadband speeds - the Broadband Accelerator.

Broadband think-tank warns new business models needed before next generation broadband roll out

12 Jun 2008 | 20.59 Europe/London
The government's leading advisory group has warned that before 'next generation' services are launched the business model behind broadband will need to change.

Summer sports set to put broadband capacity to the test

10 Jun 2008 | 19.46 Europe/London
This summer is going to see a lot of records smashed and not just on the Olympic race track. Like most sports in the digital age, the Beijing games will be simulcast on television and broadband, leading most experts to predict audience figures will shoot through the proverbial roof and test broadband networks to the limit.

OFCOM consult on FTTH pilot pricing in Ebbsfleet

09 Jun 2008 | 22.38 Europe/London
OFCOM have today launched a new public consultation, seeking views on whether BT should be allowed to give discounted connections and voice line rental to up to 300 properties connected by Fibre to the Home (FTTH) in the Ebbsfleet development.

ISPs respond to the new Ofcom code of practice

07 Jun 2008 | 10.17 Europe/London
Ofcom made the positive step on Thursday of getting 37 ISPs, which represent more than 90% of the UK market, to agree to a new code which mandates they must give a realistic forecast of the speed a subscriber will get.

OFCOM publishes voluntary code of practice on broadband speeds

05 Jun 2008 | 11.50 Europe/London
OFCOM have today published a voluntary code of practice for the advertising and selling of broadband products, designed to reduce consumer confusion especially about speed of services.

BBC collects broadband speed data (Updated)

03 Jun 2008 | 08.24 Europe/London
The BBC news website is offering a broadband speed test and an interactive mapping facility at

A new pricing framework for BT Openreach

01 Jun 2008 | 21.14 Europe/London
OFCOM have opened a consultation looking at the future pricing structure for BT's Openreach division.

Samknows.com gets a face lift

26 May 2008 | 20.18 Europe/London
Yes, it's finally happened - we've had a face lift. I've frequently received comments on the design, but the final nail in the coffin was when someone answered the survey and said that the style was "just too geeky"!

Seriously though, we're just trying to make the website a bit more usable, particularly for new users.

BT Wholesale publishes indicative Fibre To The Premises pricing

24 May 2008 | 15.12 Europe/London
BT Wholsale's launch of FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) at the new Ebbsfleet valley housing development kicks off this Autumn.

Ofcom announces deregulation for 70% of the UK broadband market

21 May 2008 | 21.44 Europe/London
Ofcom has today announced that it will deregulate 70% of the UK's broadband market. The news was widely expected following the European Union green-lighting the process in February of this year.

The capacity challenge facing BT Openreach

20 May 2008 | 20.16 Europe/London
The growth of local loop unbundling (LLU) in the past 18 months has undoubtedly been explosive. In the last quarter alone there were over 600,000 LLU connections provisioned.

Performance Monitoring Network deployment update

19 May 2008 | 21.16 Europe/London
This is just a brief update to say that we've sent out the final confirmation email to the first 200 users of the Performance Monitoring Network.

Announcing the Samknows performance monitoring network - Volunteers wanted!

06 May 2008 | 15.16 Europe/London
I've long been frustrated by the confusion surrounding broadband performance, and it seems I'm not alone.

A brief summary of our survey results

02 May 2008 | 13.29 Europe/London
Firstly I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who answered the survey we put up on the site in February.

BT's Wholesale Broadband Connect launches to a muted fanfare

30 Apr 2008 | 17.27 Europe/London
Keen followers of BT's 21CN project will know that today is the day that Wholesale Broadband Connect launches.

Coverage data for new wireless providers added

21 Apr 2008 | 19.39 Europe/London
Over the weekend we have incorporated coverage data for a further three wireless broadband ISPs.

Orange adopts regional broadband pricing

08 Apr 2008 | 10.21 Europe/London
Orange have today introduced a new broadband pricing structure that sees them differentiate pricing according to coverage of their LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) network.

BT Wholesale releases WBC activation dates for first 868 exchanges

29 Mar 2008 | 09.45 Europe/London
BT Wholesale have at last released the schedule for the first 868 exchanges to be activated for Wholesale Broadband Connect, their new 21CN broadband product.

BT Wholesale demonstrate further improvements with 21CN

13 Mar 2008 | 21.17 Europe/London
BT Wholesale assembled journalists from a wide range of technology websites at it's Gatwick offices yesterday as we begin the countdown to the launch of

Be Unlimited announces plans to increase LLU coverage by 400 exchanges

05 Mar 2008 | 06.03 Europe/London
Be Unlimited have this morning announced plans to expand their network by nearly 400 exchanges within the next four months.

Enta, NewNet and Edge all expand their LLU networks

23 Feb 2008 | 13.00 Europe/London
Whilst some of the larger LLU operators such as Sky and O2 may be slowing their roll out, many of the smaller operators are accelerating rapidly.

Poplar exchange runs out of LLU capacity

23 Feb 2008 | 12.18 Europe/London
On Thursday afternoon, Be (owned by O2) announced to their members that they could no longer accept new orders for customers on the

User survey - your feedback is important!

09 Feb 2008 | 14.23 Europe/London
It's a brand new year and I'd like to bring some brand new features to the website. I've already added the

Indicative WBC launch prices and new 21CN roll out information

30 Jan 2008 | 23.09 Europe/London
BT Wholesale have announced indicative launch prices for their 21CN-based Wholesale Broadband Connect and IPStream Connect products to Consult21 members.

Bulldog no longer accepting new orders

28 Jan 2008 | 21.37 Europe/London
Hot on the heels of last week's news that Bulldog were cutting off all of their SDSL clients, it now seems that Bulldog is accepting no new customers at all.

21CN summary updated

19 Jan 2008 | 14.07 Europe/London
The 21CN summary pages have been refreshed with the latset information today.

Changes afoot at Pipex and Bulldog

19 Jan 2008 | 11.30 Europe/London
Tiscali, who own both Pipex and Bulldog, have been angering both their residential and business customers this week.

Broadband progress in 2007

02 Jan 2008 | 23.02 Europe/London
It seems that at the beginning of each year someone somewhere heralds the coming year as being the "year of broadband".

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