£700 million wasted on fast broadband each year
September 24, 2010 at 1:32 pm
O2 has just carried out a study of over 2,000 consumers looking into their broadband habits, and has discovered that as a nation we are wasting £700 million each year by purchasing broadband based on its speed, rather than what we actually need.
O2 discovered that the majority of customers only really need broadband speeds up to 8Mbps. However, despite this, the average customer pays for 20Mbps. This means that, collectively, we are wasting £1.2 million a day on a service that we don’t even need.
The survey asked respondents what they use their internet for most frequently, and it turns out that the vast majority of users only need their internet to perform tasks that require a low bandwidth.
The survey found that:
- 77% use the internet for email
- 74% use it mainly for web browsing
- Over half use it to pay bills and for online banking
- Over a third use it mainly for social networking
When it comes to tasks that require more bandwidth, the amount of people using the web for these activities was greatly reduced:
- Only 18% use internet for streaming content, such as watching TV
- 5% use it to download music
- 3% download films regularly
Felix Geyr, the head of O2 Home and Broadband, said that the industry “needs to tailor its services to people’s needs” so that companies can help customers to “understand exactly what they should be buying and avoid marketing based solely on speed”.
With so many broadband deals using speed as their main selling points, and with speeds up to 50Mbps now available, it’s easy to see why so many people think that they need higher speeds. The advice, though, is to think carefully about exactly what you use the internet for in order to get the best value package you can.
Amount of time spent on broadband revealed
September 17, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Ofcom has released results of a survey stating exactly how much time we all spend online in relation to where we live in the UK.
Top of the list was Lancashire, where broadband-hungry residents spent an average of 62.4 hours surfing the web during May 2010. This compared to an average across the country of 54.8 hours.
The least amount of time spent online was in the Border region, where residents only spent an average of 43.9 hours a month browsing the web. Other places where the amount of broadband usage was higher than average included London, southern England and the Midlands.
So, what are the reasons behind these differences in usage? Why do people in one part of the country spend so much more time online than in other parts? Ofcom said that there could be a number of factors involved in the amount of time we spend on the web, including the age profile and the socio-economic profile of the residents in each area.
Another factor involved is the “rural/urban split of a region”. Many rural broadband users do not benefit from the high broadband speeds of their city counterparts and, until the government comes good on its goal to introduce a minimum broadband speed across the entire country, these individuals are far less likely to spend lots of time online.
The research was unveiled in Ofcom’s Communications Market Report, which also revealed the total broadband take-up across the UK to be 71%. This is slightly less than the figure in England of 73%.
Virgin to inform malware-affected customers
September 10, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Virgin Media has announced that it will be sending letters out to customers whose computers are affected by malware. The third-largest ISP in the UK has discovered that almost a quarter of its customers are affected by computer problems including Trojans, viruses and spyware.
Virgin has not been spying on its customers, but has instead been working with various not-for-profit organisations to find IP ranges that are infected, and it will then send letters to any customers whom it discovers are likely to be affected by malware.
Virgin will provide these customers with information regarding free ways to scan their computers and get rid of any viruses present. However, it will also use the letters as an opportunity to market its Digital Home Support service, a paid service that gets rid of problems remotely and costs £6 a month.
A spokesperson for Virgin said that it is “quite a serious issue” and highlighted the Zeus Trojan which has led to some customers losing lots of money. It is also keen to carry out the action in as “non-invasive a way as possible” by not monitoring its customers directly.
Virgin also highlighted that sometimes having an antivirus product is not enough to protect a computer. It warned that many customers do not realise that their antivirus products have expired or have stopped updating, which is putting their computers at risk.
Virgin is expected to send out a few hundred letters a week initially, but if successful it could end up expanding the programme.
Brits putting internet passwords at risk
September 3, 2010 at 12:13 pm
How safe are your online passwords? Even if you think that no one else knows what your passwords are, if you use easily-identifiable words then you could be placing your identity at risk.
That is the warning from Experian, the credit reference agency, who conducted a survey into the password habits of the nation’s internet users. After questioning 2,000 adults, it revealed that over half of us admit to making our online passwords easily available on the internet and that we only ever change our details when prompted.
The problem stems from social networking sites and online dating profiles. People regularly post information to these sites such as their dates of birth, towns of birth, past schools and more. This is not such a problem in itself, but when the same people start to use these words as their passwords because they are easy to remember, it becomes easier for the hackers to guess them.
Experian revealed that, of the people questioned in its survey:
- 18% would publish their town of birth online, whilst only 3% would give this information to a stranger over the phone
- 24% would publish their previous schools online, compared to 1% over the phone
- 27% would publish their date of birth online, compared to 23% over the phone
It also revealed that:
- 51% use the same password for most accounts
- 57% use data available on their online sites as passwords
- 52% don’t ever change passwords unless they are told to or believe their accounts might be compromised
Pete Turner from Experian said that “the message of ID fraud is still not being heard” and that people need to become more aware of the information they are publishing online.
