Virgin takes on BT with B2B broadband
February 26, 2010 at 2:53 pm
The relationship between BT and Virgin has long been acrimonious, and now it’s set to hit a new low. Hostilities have once again been raised by the introduction of Virgin’s own business broadband service, which is set to go head-to-head against BT’s own similar service.
The new service from Virgin is called Virgin Media Business, and constitutes a re-branding of the previous name, ntl:Telewest Business. It will be targeted specifically at SMEs (small to medium enterprises), and Virgin is hoping that it will be able to steal a large chunk of the market from under BT’s nose.
Hostilities have hardly ceased in recent months between the two companies. BT last month vowed to undercut Virgin with its new super-fast broadband service, and Virgin replied in kind by highlighting the deficiencies in BT’s service in comparison to its own.
Virgin is intent on making its mark on the broadband market, and has seen the SME market as a tempting opportunity to expand. The chief operating officer, Andrew Barron, said that they were trying to offer “a clear alternative to BT”.
Virgin currently has about 60,000 SME clients. Barron highlighted the fact that after 18 months working in the business broadband division they had “improved it dramatically” and that they can now use the fibre network to “differentiate” Virgin from the other providers.
Some insiders have claimed that this move is going to be a tricky one for Virgin to pull off because the recession has had such a negative effect on SMEs. But Virgin has claimed that the demand is there, so it remains to be seen just how successful this new venture will be.
Fixed broadband to go over 500 million this year
February 26, 2010 at 2:53 pm
Fixed broadband subscriptions just keep on going up, and this year could see the global number of subscriptions rise above the half a billion mark for the first time. This is according to Informa Telecoms & Media, which has carried out research into the current state of global fixed-broadband connections.
As part of its research it has also released details about fixed-broadband subscriptions in 2009 which shed some light on the state of the market. There were 480 million connections last year across the world, but Informa Telecoms & Media claims that this is due to go up significantly as more companies realise the benefits of modern web services.
It also revealed where the strongest growth is likely to occur. Russia, China and Mexico are the three countries at the top of the list. Indeed, seven of the top 20 countries are in emerging markets, painting a clear picture of how the global broadband market is evolving.
In terms of the numbers of subscribers, the company took its figures from September 2009 and found that China was at the top of the list with 91,348,000 subscribers. It was followed closely by the United States with 82,846,600, and Japan was third with 31,240,000. Britain was in sixth place with 18,033,300 subscribers.
The principal analyst at Informa, Rob Gallagher, said of the emerging markets that “about four out of five households do not have broadband in these markets”, which means that “there is still much room for growth”. He also confirmed that these markets would be the ones responsible for most of the next 100 million subscriptions that were likely by 2014, because the more developed markets have now levelled out.
Orange voted best mobile broadband provider
February 19, 2010 at 3:43 pm
If you are wondering which mobile broadband provider to choose, then you may be swayed in favour of Orange after the provider held onto its position as the best mobile broadband operator in the latest YouGov poll.
It is a competitive market out there for mobile broadband, but Orange must be doing something right. According to the survey carried out by the independent research firm, Orange has once again proved its worth and come out top in a number of different categories to be crowned the overall champion of mobile broadband.
2,037 people were surveyed overall, in the middle of January. The respondents were questioned about 15 categories, including factors such as reliability, customer service, upload speeds and more.
Of the 15, Orange was voted the best in seven categories. These included customer service, ease of use, upload speeds and reliability amongst others.
But Orange is no stranger to success; in the last survey to be carried out by YouGov in October 2009, Orange also came first. And it is this continuity that will be the most appealing to prospective mobile broadband customers.
The director of Broadband and Home at Orange, Asif Aziz, said that the company’s ability to retain its top spot was a “great accomplishment” and was “recognition of our strong focus on network quality and brilliant customer service”. He also confirmed that they would be building on these in the future so that customers would continue to experience a high quality service.
Let’s hope that Orange’s dominance at the top of the table will inspire the other operators to get their act together and improve the mobile broadband marketplace for consumers.
Tories promise super-fast broadband by 2017
February 12, 2010 at 4:03 pm
The fight to provide the UK with super-fast broadband has become a campaign issue for the major political parties now that the Conservatives have vowed to provide the next generation of broadband to the majority of homes across the country by 2017.
This ambitious target involves the provision of speeds up to 100Mbps, which will be achieved through a combination of fixed-line and mobile broadband connections. But with such a bold promise, how are they planning to pay for this revolution?
The answer is found in the BBC licence fee. The current government released its Digital Britain report last year, which promises 2Mpbs speeds for all through instigating a new 50p tax on landlines. The Tories have always opposed this plan, and instead they want to find the money through the licence fee so that no household will feel the effects.
The problem with super-fast broadband is that there are some rural parts of the country where it simply does not make financial sense for providers to install fibre optic cables because there is no market value. It is thought that about two thirds of the country will be covered by the market, but that leaves one third missing out.
And this is where the extra money from the BBC licence fee will come in. The Tories have said that they will be able to raise £130 million a year from their plans for the installation of super-fast broadband for all. However, the government has claimed that the landline tax will raise between £150 and £175 million.
Despite this, the Tories have said that they will also force BT to open up its facilities to its rivals to create more competition, as well as surveying the utility infrastructure of the country to find out where it could possibly lay more fibre-optic cables.
Super-fast broadband from BT is launched
February 5, 2010 at 2:36 pm
BT has released its own super-fast broadband service, joining Virgin in the battle to provide the nation with a new generation in broadband. The new service will be capable of speeds up to 40Mbps, a huge improvement on the recent top speeds of about 8Mbps.
The service has been named BT Infinity, and it went on sale on January 25. Customers who have had their lines upgraded already will be able to get the service straight away, and packages start at £19.99 plus a line rental of £11.54.
Until now, Virgin has been the only broadband provider to offer the service, and the battle is already heating up between the two companies. Virgin is making it very clear that it is the only one to offer customers speeds of up to 50Mbps. However, this extra 10Mbps will cost an extra £10 per month, so whether it is worth it will be a question for customers to decide.
Virgin has also highlighted its more generous fair-usage policy. Virgin claims that none of its 40,000 customers have ever gone over its fair-usage limit, compared to BT’s cheapest service which only allows 20GB of downloads a month. However, BT has hit back by saying that its £25 service allows a very generous 100GB download limit a month.
The BT service will only be available to a few hundred thousand people in parts of London, Cardiff and Glasgow to start with. It will soon spread to other areas and will reach about half of the country in the near future, with 4 million having access to the service by the end of the year.
By the time the 2012 Olympics arrive, BT is hoping to get its fibre optic wires to 10 million homes through an investment of £1.5 billion.
