‘Persuasion, not coercion’ for web pirates
September 25, 2009 at 1:24 pm
Virgin Media has implored Lord Mandelson not to change the law on web piracy, as ISPs (Internet Service Providers) voice concerns about the legality of the move.
Under the new law, illegal file sharers could be permanently disconnected from the internet, a dramatic shift from the traditional ‘three-strike’ system, whereby persistent offenders could only be booted from the web in extreme cases.
Virgin Media, one of the UK’s pre-eminent service providers, called for stronger measures to deter consumers from committing copyright fraud, but rejected Lord Mandelson’s plan as “heavy-handed and punitive”.
Experts have accused the Labour politician of being submissive in the light of continuing pressure from the music and film industry. Websites such as Pirate Bay have drawn stinging criticism from record-label executives for providing users with the means to commit copyright theft.
Software that supports .torrent files – a protocol that allows files with many parts to be downloaded as a single object such as an album of music – have also been earmarked for assault.
People who regularly visit the BitTorrent and µTorrent websites, two of the most popular file sharing platforms, could find themselves in hot water, despite the legitimacy of the applications themselves.
BitTorrent critics are quick to forget that many broadband customers use .torrent files responsibly. Online gamers who need to download huge files to play, or musicians who offer their music free of charge (Nine Inch Nails, for example), both make use of torrent software.
Lord Mandelson’s proposal, if accepted, could see whole families banished from the internet, something which TalkTalk and Virgin are keen to avoid.
It begs the question of whether ISPs are responsible for shepherding their customers away from the copyright wolves, or whether they are merely providing an impersonal service. Inevitably, the file-sharing war will descend into a fight about independence and responsibility. Or, in simpler terms, who is most to blame.
Unbundled (LLU) broadband lines surpass 6 million
September 25, 2009 at 1:22 pm
There has been a huge change in the broadband scene in the UK over the past four years, according to research released by Ofcom. The regulator has just released details stating that unbundled (LLU) broadband lines now number 6 million in the country, as opposed to just 123,000 four years ago.
Ofcom is now saying that the huge growth in LLU broadband is one of the main reasons that the country has seen such good broadband penetration in recent years. Broadband penetration is now at 65% rather than the 37% it was at in September 2005. It has also helped the price of broadband to go down from an average of £23.30 + VAT per month to just £13.61 + VAT.
The reason for the huge growth in LLU broadband goes back to September 2005, when Ofcom ruled that BT had to allow other companies to use its copper lines to operate their own broadband services.
Ed Richards, chief executive of Ofcom, said that “unbundling has gone from a flicker on the dial to a major competitive force in telecoms”. There are now over 30 companies offering unbundled broadband, which is good news for everyone. More people have started to use broadband, and costs have also gone down as a result.
According to the Ofcom report, at present there are 18 million broadband connections in the UK. This is a large number, but the number of connections is only expected to increase as the government aims to provide 2Mbps broadband to the entire nation by 2012.
Zen nets eighth service award
September 18, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Zen Internet has won the Which? Best Buy broadband award for the fourth time in a row, achieving an 87% customer satisfaction rating – almost three times higher than bottom of the league, AOL UK.
Founded in a pub in 1995, Zen Internet is the brainchild of Richard Tang, a young entrepreneur from Rochdale. The company was one of the first internet companies ever created, handling six modems and fifty dial-up customers by the mid-nineties.
Despite being one of the most expensive broadband providers in the UK, Zen Internet has enjoyed a slow but inexorable rise to the top, surpassing the challenges posed by long-dead ISP, Freeserve, and gobbling up plenty of accolades along the way.
Yesterday’s Best Buy award was Zen’s eighth, placing the firm above every major service provider on the market. Zen achieved top marks for customer service, speed, and reliability. A penchant for one-month contracts also excited the judges.
Orange, Tiscali, and BT, three of the more popular providers, found themselves stuck in the doldrums, with 32%, 39%, and 48% respectively. Tesco, Karoo, and the little known, Freedom2Surf, also made an appearance, albeit a rather inglorious one.
Poor old AOL, a staple of dial-up services in the late-nineties, achieved a devastating 31% customer satisfaction rating – a “don’t buy” in Which? parlance.
At the other end of the table, Be Broadband and Waitrose achieved over 60% each, whilst mobile phone champion, O2, achieved a respectable second place with 85%.
Having won the Northwest Business of the Year Award three times, the world is Richard Tang’s oyster.
Unfortunately, with no new Zen technology due at BT’s unbundled exchange network, customers outside the northwest will have to make do with their Home Hub or O2 router for a little while longer.
View the winners and losers on the ISPreview website.
Merger to revolutionise broadband
September 18, 2009 at 1:46 pm
The merger of Yahoo! and Microsoft could have greater implications for the internet than expected, as the two companies recently announced their plans to topple search engine goliath Google.
Yahoo! and Microsoft share a convoluted history. In February 2008 Bill Gates’s company offered to purchase Yahoo! for £20.5bn in cash and stocks. Yahoo! refused, anticipating a stronger offer from the conglomerate.
Over the next three months, both companies lost millions on the stock market. Yahoo!’s directors revolted and on May 3rd negotiations collapsed, leading Microsoft to close the door and walk away.
The two companies, whose combined annual revenue totals $70bn, finally agreed a ten-year search deal on 29th July 2009, after Microsoft limited its takeover bid to Yahoo!’s search technology. Advertisers welcomed the deal.
Carol Bartz, chief executive of Yahoo!, insinuated that the recent merger was designed to revolutionise the way people utilise their broadband connections, stating that “it establishes a foundation for a new era of internet innovation and development”.
The release of Bing, a replacement for antiquated search engine MSN Search, is a direct challenge to Google’s dominance. As of June 2009, Google, who also own the Chrome browser, command a 65% share of all search traffic in the US and a 90.6% share in the UK. Bing has a meagre 2.4%.
Not to be outdone, Google is also developing a new, more powerful search engine. Nicknamed “Caffeine”, the updated product will replace the current engine developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin over a decade ago.
In similar news, Microsoft is set to unveil a new on-demand TV service. MSN Video Player will compete with YouTube, BBCi and the recently refurbished 4OD, but many experts believe that the launch will be overshadowed by the release of yet another streaming video service, Hulu.
Northern Ireland gets best broadband speeds
September 14, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Following the release of recent Ofcom research into broadband speeds across the UK, Northern Ireland was revealed as the surprise winner. The research was carried out into people subscribing to broadband services that provided speeds of up to 8Mbps. The UK average for such speeds is just 3.9Mbps, whereas in Northern Ireland the research showed that the average speed is 4.1Mbps. However, Ofcom also revealed that the margin of error was 0.4Mbps, meaning these figures may not be so much to shout about after all.
There are various reasons why Northern Ireland is experiencing faster speeds than everyone else. One possible reason is that the quality of the electrical lines in the region is better than the rest of the UK. However, a more likely reason is that fewer people in Northern Ireland have access to local loop unbundled services and cable broadband services, so there are simply more people using DSL services of up to 8Mbps.
Denis Wolinski, the director for Ofcom in Northern Ireland, said that the results were “very encouraging” but that some parts of the country still suffered from very slow speeds that needed to be sorted out, most notably in rural areas of the country.
The research from Ofcom also revealed that, overall, broadband users in the UK still don’t receive the speeds that are advertised. Nearly 20% of people on an 8Mbps broadband service only receive speeds of just under 2Mbps, with only a tiny 9% receiving more than 6Mbps. However, on a more positive note, the average connection speed of 4.1Mbps marks an improvement on the 3.6Mbps recorded in January.
Mobile broadband users heavily fined for going over download limits
September 14, 2009 at 2:42 pm
Mobile broadband has taken off massively over the past year. Its ability to keep people connected wherever they are has proved hugely popular, and the services, speeds and special offers just keep getting better. But now Moneysupermarket.com has revealed a potentially costly problem that is affecting customers all over the country.
The controversy surrounds the fines that are imposed by broadband providers when customers go over their download limits. The idea of fines initially sounds sensible, but it’s the size of the fines that are now causing problems for many users. O2 was one of the worst offenders, charging its customers £200 for every GB by which they went over their limit, and 3 was also excessive, charging £102. Other companies also make charges, although the £15 imposed by Vodafone and the £14.64 that Orange fine their users are not in the same league.
Moneysupermarket.com’s research revealed that although most people thought that fines were a good way to prevent people abusing the network, a third of users thought that they were unfair. On top of that, one in four customers was unaware that they had a download limit, and half were aware that they had a limit but didn’t know what it was.
Both O2 and 3 countered the claim that they were charging unfairly by stating that they send warning text messages to remind people when they are approaching their limits. A spokesman for O2 said “We text them when they are at 50% of the usage, and again at 90% and again if they go over.”
James Parker, the manager of mobiles and broadband at Moneysupermarket.com, said that people should be careful about their limits, and that “a fixed line is a better value option for heavy users”.
£4.89-a-month mobile broadband from Orange
September 4, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Orange customers will be very smug that they decided to go with the mobile network operator during the recession because the company has just announced details of the cheapest mobile broadband deal to hit the market.
Customers signing up to Orange Internet Everywhere will be on an 18-month contract that provides a decent mobile broadband service for just £4.89 a month. With this you will get a 500MB download limit and speeds of up to 3.6Mbps, making it excellent value for money.
The catch is that this deal is not going to be available for everyone. The deal will only be available to people who already have an Orange mobile phone or a home broadband connection, meaning Orange is using the deal to reward its loyal customers. As if the low price wasn’t enough, there is also another bonus because it is throwing in a free Huawei E160e dongle into the mix, which can also work as a memory stick.
If you are not a current Orange customer then the company has just released some other deals that you might be interested in. These come in the form of the Early Bird Tariff, which comprises three different mobile broadband packages.
The cheapest of these is £13 and has a 1GB download allowance, with the other two coming with either 3GB or a massive 10GB. It is named the Early Bird Tariff because, no matter what the download limit of the deal, between 12 midnight and 9 am, customers will be able to get unlimited downloads, subject to the fair usage policy. The deal is on a 12-month contract, and Orange has even introduced a cap of £40 for going over the limit, to stop any extra fees from becoming too big.
ISP gets tough on illegal downloaders
September 4, 2009 at 4:11 pm
There has long been speculation that ISPs (Internet Service Providers) would start to cut off the broadband connections of those who persistently downloaded and shared music files illegally online. Up until now, the favoured approach of ISPs was to provide their users with a ‘three strikes’ policy, which meant that they would be given warning letters before any decision was made to cut off their connections.
But last week there was concern amongst customers of Karoo that the ISP was taking a tougher approach as it became the first ISP in the country to cut the internet connections of those whom it suspected of downloading files illegally, without any warnings. On top of that, it also began suspending the accounts of the most persistent offenders for up to two years.
The move brought complaints by those who were affected, with claims that they were not given adequate warning by the ISP. It is slightly surprising that Karoo has taken this heavy-handed approach because up until now ISPs have not been overly keen to take responsibility for their users’ web habits.
However, after originally claiming that it represented the “responsible approach” to illegal downloading, the company made a sudden change of tactics. Nick Thompson, the director of consumer services at Karoo, said that it was clear the company had been “exceeding the expectations” of the copyright owners, and they began to approach the problem like the other ISPs.
One of the main problems for customers was that in Hull and its surrounding areas Karoo is the only ISP operating. This meant that if they were cut off from their internet connections they were left with no other means of getting connected again.
