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. Indeed, this is primarily how we fund the operation of the website.
One flaw, from a retail perspective, with our existing Availability Checker [...]

It’s a brand new year and I’d like to bring some brand new features to the website. I’ve already added the mapping engine and the address based availability checker since the start of the year, and now I’d like to get your feedback on what else you would like to see.
In this spirit, I have [...]

Our wholesale broadband checker now supports address based checking. This is ideal if you don’t have a BT phone line but want to receive an accurate result! Address level resolution data is available for all BT Wholesale based ADSL services, BT Wholesale SDSL and Virgin Media cable services.
The Availability Checker API has been updated to [...]

Yesterday saw the launch of Simplifydigital, a new digital services advice company. They aim to take the complexity out of choosing broadband, TV and phone services by tailoring a package to suit your individual needs. Whilst there are parallels between Simplifdigital and online comparison sites, Simplifydigital are breaking the mould by offering impartial advice [...]

As you may have already noticed, the website has undergone a makeover. The old look had been there for four years now, so we decided to have a bit of a change. We have tried to keep a similar feel to the site, and hope that both new and existing users find the updated layout [...]

Coverage data for Smallworld Media has now been fully incorporated in to the website. Smallworld are a relatively new player in the broadband market, but are particularly interesting not just because of their triple-play offerings, but also because they operate both a cable and LLU ADSL2+ network (This is why they appear twice on the [...]

Two changes have been made to the availability checker today. Firstly, AOL LLU data has now been fully incorporated in to the checker (and the rest of the site). The checker will now report whether or not AOL has unbundled your exchange. Similarly, you can view this information on your exchange page as well.
Sadly, the [...]

I’ve added a couple of new LLU providers to the listings today – Lumison (a business ISP based operating in Scotland) and WB Internet. I’ve also updated the Carphone Warehouse / TalkTalk data en-mass, thanks to an update provided by the company themselves. In an effort to help out users of the site who are [...]

Many of you have reported to me that the Bulldog data on the site is not truly reflective of what the Bulldog residential checker displays. This is because we take a feed from their wholesale checker, and whilst you might expect the information to tally closely, in quite a few cases it does not.
For this [...]

The various API’s provided on the Samknows.com website allow end users and companies to incorporate some of our functionality in to their site completely transparently. One such API is the Availability Checker API. This allows you to query availability for all the providers we contain on the website using either a phone number or postcode. [...]

It’s easy to see that ADSL Max has got everyone rather excited at the moment. Forum posts on the subject are seemingly endless in number and the bt.com/broadband website seemed to slow a crawl at midnight as the nations most eager broadband users simultaneously clicked “Go” on the availability checker.
However, a note of caution. ADSL [...]

A much needed update of the Availability Checker has finally been completed. This adds support for ADSL Max, Be, Wanadoo, Zen, Edge and also improved data for Now wireless services. There are also a few other additions that will be completed over the coming weeks.
The updated checker builds directly on top of a new Availability [...]

We’ve received an update on the rollout of ADSL Max today, and can report the following figures:a
Max enabled exchanges: 75
Exchanges with “Green” enablement dates: 3376
Exchanges with “Amber” enablement dates: 1857
Exchanges with “Red” enablement dates: 44
Exchanges not due to be updated (“Black”): 239
Green exchanges can be treated as very likely meet their target date. Amber exchanges [...]

The maps section has been updated with a whole host of new and updated maps detailing broadband rollout across the UK. This update has been facilitated by a new backend mapping engine that was created by a new addition to the team, Ian. This allows us to create fully customised maps based upon live data [...]

My sincere apologies for the extended absence. I’ve updated most of the ADSL, SDSL and LLU data last week, but still have Bulldog data to update. Be data is now in the database, but not yet published online. I’ll get to this soon.
For those people (mostly businesses in fact) that use the XML checker interfaces [...]

Be, today launched ‘Be home 24 meg’ – the UK’s fastest broadband service.
For just £24 per month, Be offers it’s members speeds up to 24 megs and limitless
24 hour per day access to the Internet, using the free, wireless Be Box modem.
Be’s 24 meg service represents an exponential leap for Internet users. Just one of
their [...]

Quick snippet of news, it seems like the Wanadoo LLU trial in Leeds is going well, more information here
Also Pipex is making noises that they want to enable 60 exchanges, but they have to have at least 400 customers within 5kms of the core network. More information here

Be Unlimited are offering 24Meg download and 1Meg upload, unlimited internet access.
On 24 exchanges in the London area, we are in the process of enquiring into where those 24 exchanges are to a better level of detail.
The home service is priced at £20 per month for lift once the trial is completed. We would expect [...]

A few people commented that they would prefer the extension to redirect to this website as opposed to a different website, so it has been updated to work with the availability checker script here, as well as a few other little bugs being ironed out.
The new extension can be found here. Don’t forget to remove [...]

There is now a Firefox extension available to anyone who uses samknows.com quite often.
The extension allows you to use the Broadband Availability checker on the fly, by just entering a telephone number, and clicking Go.
The extension uses a slightly different script on a different server, however, it provides all the information available on samknows.com.
The extension [...]