Recent news about broadband in the UK
We have gathered together some recent news articles relating to broadband internet in the UK.
Millions of broadband users rack up extra charges for video downloads (Daily Mail: 26/03/2008)
Internet users who download TV programmes and films are being hit with extra charges for the privilege, experts have warned.
Bills are rising as much as £20 a month because of the additional costs, which many customers are missing in the small print of their contracts.
Increasing numbers of people are using websites to download content, with broadband now much more accessible around Britain.
Channel 4's on-demand service 4oD and the BBC's iPlayer are just two online services that allow internet users to download TV programmes and films.
However, they are facing extra charges as some basic broadband packages only allow downloads of one gigabyte of data each month.
Anyone going over this limit, which is the equivalent of about 90 minutes of content, is likely to face a higher bill.
BBC downloads push broadband firms to the limit (The Times Online: 08/03/2008)
BROADBAND firms are having to restrict customers’ usage because of the unprecedented success of the BBC’s iPlayer, the online viewing service.
The news will raise fears that Britain’s broadband network is struggling to cope with the growing demand for TV programmes that can be viewed online after they have aired.
Thousands of broadband users face breaching their usage limits as a result and will have to fork out more for superior packages.
The iPlayer – which was launched in December and allows you to watch your favourite programmes on your computer – has attracted 17m people in its first three months. However, it has increased internet traffic by 66%, say some broadband providers.
They have a limited “bandwidth” so, with more people using high-speed services, are having to impose restrictions on speeds, and use download limits and “fair usage policies” to control traffic.
O2 extend discount to Pre Pay mobile customers (: 24/02/2008)
O2 Prepay customers will be eligible for a discount on O2 Broadband!
The O2 Broadband packages for Prepay will then be the same as Postpay customers. Each package receiving a £5 per month discount for O2 customers. The packages for O2 customers are:
- Standard - £7.50 per month
- Premium - £10.00 per month
- Ultimate - £15.00 per month
Prepay customers will need to take out a 12 month O2 Home Broadband contract, O2 Prepay customers will automatically get their discount off the O2 Broadband bill when they top up their mobile by a minimum of £10 every 3 months. If a Prepay customer fails to top-up their mobile by the minimum £10 in the 3 months before their Broadband bill is generated, they will be charged for their Broadband service at the higher (non-discounted) price for that month.
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Plastic fibres to bring cheap super-fast broadband (NewScientist.com : 11/01/2008)
Homes and businesses across Europe may soon receive ultra high-speed broadband over cheap and easy-to-install plastic optical fibres.
The consortium developing the technology hopes to provide 80% of European homes with broadband up to 50 times faster than today's ADSL within 15 years.
Glass optical fibres form the backbone of high-speed data networks, but the branches into homes and businesses are old-fashioned copper connections. Replacing the metal with optical fibre is just too expensive, placing a bottleneck on broadband speeds over the last few hundred meters to a user's computer.
For years, experts have predicted that the cost of optical fibre will eventually drop, or that wireless services will replace cables. But rather than wait, in 2006 the European Union funded researchers to further develop the plastic optical fibres, which have been used in niche markets like security for years. That project has now borne fruit.
BT comes last for broadband satisfaction (Tim Ferguson silicon.com : 14/12/2007)
BT has come bottom of the eight major UK broadband providers in a customer-satisfaction survey.BT has come bottom of the eight major UK broadband providers in a customer-satisfaction survey.
In the JD Power and Associates 2007 UK Broadband Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study, the company scored 626 points out of a possible 1,000 — 42 points behind the top-rated Tiscali, which scored 668.
Tiscali moves up from third place in 2006, scoring well on its billing process.
However, despite falling costs and rising broadband speeds, there is a continuing overall downturn in customer satisfaction this year — largely due to increasing call-waiting times.
The average satisfaction level has fallen nine points, compared with 2006, to 645, while the average call-waiting time now stands at 17 minutes.
For the first time in the survey's three-year history, customer-service complaints outnumbered service-related questions.
Behind Tiscali came Virgin Media, with a score of 660, followed by Sky (657), AOL (646), Orange (636), Pipex (634), TalkTalk (630) and, finally, BT.