Broadband News: May 2007

The digital divide between countries in the UK is narrowing according to a report from Ofcom. Overall access to broadband increased from 35% to 45% between 2005 and 2006. However by the forth quarter of 2006, broadband penetration reached an unbelievable 50%, a rise of 43% on 2005.
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Big Brother 8 was launched yesterday with Virgin Media as their new sponsors. 6.2 million people tuned in to see the launch, which had the surprise of an all female house. The audience peaked at 8 million viewers (a 35% share of the audience) which equals the previous highest peak of viewers for a BB launch.
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Money being spent online on consumer goods is increasing rapidly and in the UK has grown at its fastest rate since the dotcom crash. The results come after retail analysts Verdict Research claim that money spent for consumer shopping online increased by 33.4% to £10.9 billion from last year. Verdict also sees these online sales tripling over the next five years.
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A new report showing that wireless broadband is on course to overtake wired broadband as the most used internet access for business in the foreseeable future.
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Sony has agreed a deal with BT to provide broadband access to the Sony PSP, which will transform the PSP into a mobile phone and internet appliance.
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A private equity consortium spearheaded by US group Providence Equity Partners, is considering a $15 billion (£7.5 billion) for Virgin Media.
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As revealed last Friday on Top 10 Broadband, BT Wholesale and the Post Office have teamed up and signed a strategic agreement lasting four years and worth £750 million.

The agreement aims to expand the level of services the Post Office currently offers, and increase revenue though different avenues due to a loss in revenue in its traditional business.
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Project Access is a UK broadband scheme launched in 2005 that aims to deliver a high capacity wireless broadband network across Cumbria and North Lancashire. The £20 million scheme, funded by the Northwest Regional Development Agency has just been named among the top 5 best European broadband projects by the EU commission.
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The ongoing saga of the Pipex sale entered a new stage today with rumours that Tiscali may buy the company.
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As reported at Top 10 on Monday, BT have released their figures for the year so far, and again as predicted BT are now the largest broadband provider in the UK, surpassing Virgin Media.
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A new Spanish company aims to make broadband more accessible to everyone, particularly those on the move. Gonutsforfree.com is an internet service provider which offers free internet access, solutions and support. There is no membership fee, nor purchase required. So what’s the catch?
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Telfonica, the Spanish based company which owns O2, has announced the launch of their broadband service for the UK and Germany is to be delayed again. The service was scheduled to be launch in spring 2007 but due to ‘teething problems’ has now been delayed to September this year.
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Recently it was revealed by the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry that 99.8% of UK residents now “have access” to broadband – a figure which demonstrates the near-absolute reach of internet access across the country.
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The latest study from Media-Screen claims that broadband users spend 48% of their personal time online during typical weekdays. They also said that most of this time (54%) is spent on communication and entertainment related activities. As well as communication and leisure, users spend much of their time shopping, finding news and on ‘personal productivity’ (including health and lifestyle sites, information sites and cookery websites.)
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BT is launching a multi-million TV ad campaign in order to launch their new digital TV service BT Vision. The £10 million plus campaign goes live this Saturday, uses the tag line of ‘TV on your terms’, and feature Kris Marshall and Esther Hall who currently play partners Adam and Jane in BT’s current advertising. Two new 60 second clips will develop their story as they race home to watch TV.
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BT are expected to announce by the end of the week that they have overtaken Virgin Media to once again be the largest supplier of broadband in Britain.
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Following the very public spat with BSkyB, Virgin Media have announced a loss of 46,900 customers within the first three months of the year.
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The news by Epitiro is from their Q1 2007 Internet Performance Indicator Report, and also shows TalkTalk moving into the top 5 for the first time, joining Pipex, AOL, Demon and BT who have been at the top now for the forth consecutive quarter. The table (shown below) is based on technical performance, therefore customers with these providers should experience better connection and faster connection speeds. Orange and Virgin who in Q4 2006 were third and fifth respectively were not in the new top 5.
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Salford-based Netservices have agreed to sell its consumer broadband operations to Leeds-based 186k Ltd for just over £1 million. The initial amount paid will be £300,000 with the rest in instalments.
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By the end of April, Sky’s broadband customer base has gone from zero to 553,000 in just nine months. The number has also doubled within the last three months. With gross bookings standing at 669,000 Sky are on course to reach their target of 700,000 by the end of June. The Sky broadband network now reaches 60% of UK homes. Combined with Easynet they aim to achieve network coverage of 70% by the 30th of June. Continue reading…

Virgin has announced a range of capping measures for heavy internet downloaders during peak hours. Virgin Media views peak hours as between 4pm and midnight, and they claim that this speed cap will only affect 5% of users from each tier of their service. Continue reading…

Another month over and plenty more news has made the headlines at Top 10 Broadband. Firstly we have introduced three, new Internet Service Providers to our every expanding website. These include Direct Save Telecom (DST), Plusnet and most recently Namesco. You can view their offers compared to the others easily and effectively on our site.

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ITV, the major commercial UK broadcaster, has revealed a new broadband service allowing users to watch all their favourite shows from ITV channels for free.

The new ITV.com will feature live Continue reading…

According the a new report by the European Commission (EC), a third of Europeans are now wired up to a high-speed broadband connection. Of the 27,000 households surveyed in the report 53% are connected via ADSL while 35% use wireless connectivity. Continue reading…

Developers at Power chipset provider DS2 have created a new line of applications which use a power line to access broadband. The products allow you to stream data, video, music and IPTV around your house at speeds up to 200Mb/s. however likely speeds are likely to average around 90-100Mb/s and the lowest 30-40Mb/s still much higher than anything available currently.
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Top 10 Broadband launch new website – 30 April 2007

Are you getting your best broadband deal?

Major UK broadband comparison site Top 10 Broadband (www.top10-broadband.co.uk) today launches a fully redesigned website incorporating a revolutionary postcode checker, a broadband switching tool including ‘deal beating’ technology, a daily news section and more industry-leading broadband comparison functions. Continue reading…