CAP issue new broadband advertising guidelines
by Kerry ButtersThe Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) has issued new guidelines for broadband providers on how they advertise speed and usage. The new guidance means that service providers will no longer allowed to claim their broadband is unlimited if there is any charge imposed on users who exceed a certain threshold. CAP says that whilst ISPs [...]
September 22, 2011
BT advert complaint upheld
by Kerry ButtersComplaints made by Virgin Media about BT’s adverts, which promised broadband speeds of up to 40Mbps, have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA). The ruling stated that ASA had noted Virgin’s concerns that BT appeared to promise wide availability for their Infinity service, and said that BT did not make this clear in [...]
September 21, 2011
Price most important for broadband consumers
by Kerry ButtersA new survey by Yorkshire broadband supplier Plusnet has found that the most important factor considered by consumers is – unsurprisingly – price. 64% of those surveyed cited price as being the most important to them when choosing a communications provider, with customer service coming in second and easy set-up third. Only 12% said that [...]
September 20, 2011
Eclipse Lightspeed fibre broadband package launched
by Darren AllanEclipse has launched a new fibre broadband package entitled Lightspeed. The Internet Service Provider claims that this new home broadband package gives users super-fast speeds without having to break the bank in order to obtain them. The basic package costs £21.50 and gives you up to 40Mbps downloads, and 10Mbps upload speeds. That includes 10GB [...]
August 8, 2011
Lincolnshire Council subsidising SMEs wage bill
by Jan HarrisNorth Lincolnshire Council has launched a £1.7 million scheme to help SMEs create new jobs. The scheme will pay half the salaries of workers recruited by firms with less than 250 employees, who have been in business for six months or longer. It is hoped that it will support the creation of 350 new jobs. [...]
August 4, 2011
Universal broadband still a long way off
by Jan HarrisOfcom’s eighth Annual Communications Market report shows that the government still has a long way to go to get the whole of the UK online. Nearly three-quarters (74 per cent) of UK residents now have a broadband connection, an increase of three per cent in the first quarter of the year. The main groups of [...]
July 6, 2011
Ofcom publishes broadband map
by Jan HarrisOfcom has published the results of a survey showing that around 14 per cent of fixed-line broadband-connected homes and businesses in the UK are putting up with download speeds below 2 megabits per second. This would prevent them from using data-rich services such as the BBC iPlayer. Ofcom also published an interactive map of “Broadband [...]
May 31, 2011
Eutelsat brings high speed Internet to remote parts of Europe
by Jan HarrisEutelsat’s High Throughput Satellite, KA-SAT, today started providing high-speed Internet services across Europe, including remote areas where high-speed broadband was previously unavailable. KA-SAT, which is the most powerful satellite in the world, was launched on 26 December from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. It will provide consumers with download speeds of up to 10 Mb/s and upload [...]
January 12, 2011
Market towns to get BT’s superfast broadband
by Jan HarrisBT Group has announced the addition of 41 market towns across the UK to its 40Mbit/s broadband roll-out, which should be available from spring next year. 785 cabinets, serving around eight million properties, have already been earmarked to be upgraded with the new infrastructure, which is costing £2.5 billion. However the service will not be [...]
October 11, 2010
SMEs put broadband before gas and water
by Jan HarrisUK SMEs rank broadband as more important than basic utilities such as gas and water, according to a survey by XLN Telecom. Over three quarters of the SMEs questioned said broadband was an essential tool, while 67% said business broadband was essential to the running of their company. The telephone was considered most essential, with [...]
September 21, 2010
1 in 5 LTE subscribers will be on 4G LTE netbooks and tablets come 2015
by Darren AllanA new report from Juniper Research suggests that as many as 20% of LTE subscribers will be surfing on 4G LTE netbooks or tablets in 2015. LTE mobile broadband, with its reduced latency and increased bandwidth, will obviously be an ideal proposition for new upgraded devices such as slates and netbooks, or handhelds and digital [...]
September 10, 2010
Broadband more important than eating, survey says
by Darren AllanIt’s hard to believe that only fifteen years ago, a great deal of the UK wasn’t online and didn’t really care much about the wonders of the worldwide web. Most people had dial-up back then, of course, and the spread of broadband has certainly done much to make the online experience a lot more palatable. [...]
August 6, 2010
UK average broadband speed tops 5Mbps
by Darren AllanBroadband speed analysts at Broadband.co.uk have announced that the UK has crested the 5Mbps average speed mark. According to the firm, the average British broadband connection runs at 5.106Mbps, based on an average of thousands of broadband speed tests taken via the site during the month of July. That figure is up considerably from a [...]
July 22, 2010
Almost half of UK broadband complaints go unresolved
by Darren AllanA survey of 2,500 broadband users conducted by Broadbandchoices.co.uk has revealed that 46% of complaints regarding their connections are left without a resolution. Or more specifically, the respondents don’t feel that the ISP has managed to reach a successful resolution to their problem. In fact, the situation is so bad when it comes to the [...]
June 15, 2010
Broadband speeds vary by a third through the day
by Darren AllanWe’re all aware, or most of us are, that the quality of our broadband connection varies considerably, from peak times to off-peak. Although it’s not easy to put specific numbers on exactly how much it varies by. However, broadband comparison site Top10.com has done just that. Top10.com measured in excess of a quarter of a [...]
June 3, 2010
Half of UK broadband customers have switched ISP
by Darren AllanA report by Orchid Consulting has uncovered data which shows that half of broadband users in the UK have got fed up with their ISP and switched to another at some point in their online lives. The company states that this is a significantly higher figure than they expected, and we suppose it is, although [...]
May 28, 2010
Many broadband users overpaying for outdated tariffs
by Darren AllanA survey conducted by Broadbandchoices.co.uk has led the site to conclude that far too many broadband users are stuck on old tariffs. With a sample size of 6,000, the survey found that over half of these (56%) admitted that they hadn’t switched broadband provider in over three years. The site then quotes estimates that over [...]
May 5, 2010
UK broadband speed hits new high
by Darren AllanThis month’s figures are out for the average broadband speed in the UK, as determined by broadband.co.uk. The website uses hundreds of thousands of speedtests run by visitors to the page to calculate the figures. And April weighed in with a new record of 4.98Mbps. That’s well up from March’s figure, which showed a slight [...]
April 7, 2010
Government delays broadband tax
by Kay MitchellThe Treasury has announced today that the proposed broadband tax of 50p per month on telephone landlines will be delayed. The tax, which was introduced to fund fibre optic cables in rural areas, was set to yield £175 million a year from next year. Millions of Britons were set to receive “super-fast” broadband as a [...]
UK broadband speed average stalls in March
by Darren AllanThe Broadband.co.uk website has been keeping an eye on the average UK broadband connection speed for a while now. By collecting data from speed tests performed at the site, an average for each ISP can be worked out, as well as for the whole country. Despite a positive trend over the past few months, March [...]