TalkTalk adds free mobile dongle to its armoury

Wednesday 27 August 2008 15:14:07 by Andrew Ferguson

Summer promotions are well under way, and mobile broadband has now been added to the bundle offerings from TalkTalk. The 'free' TalkTalk broadband that is available when you take their Talk Global Evening & Weekend calls and line rental package includes the option of a free mobile broadband dongle until 31st October 2008.

The line rental and calls package works out at £13.75 per month for three months, rising to £16.99 per month thereafter (in areas where TalkTalk has unbundled the exchange). The mobile broadband dongle will be charged at £49.99 when you take up the promotion in store, but this amount is refunded in the second billing month.

The dongle does not include any usage allowance since it is a simple Pay As You Go product from 3. To use the dongle a £10 (1GB), £15 (3GB) or £25 (7GB) top-up needs to be purchased. These top-ups are valid for 30 days and are covered in detail on the 3 website.

This offer is only available in Carphone Warehouse shops in the high street, but details of the broadband and telephone packages can be found on www.talktalk.co.uk.

AAISP ADSL2+ launch delayed by an &

Wednesday 27 August 2008 13:20:05 by Sebastien Lahtinen

Niche ISP Andrews & Arnold (AAISP) and one of the first trialists of the ADSL2+ product from BT Wholesale has had to delay its final launch for over two weeks now due to a problem with BT Wholesale systems dealing with the company's name. A&A as the company is frequently referred to, has the '&' ampersand character and BT's XML ordering interface appears not to support this, a rather basic XML error. A&A have apparently asked BT if they could represent the company using the word "and" instead to work around the issue, but so far they have been unable to come to a solution.

"We are working with BT and we hope this will be resolved soon. We expect to launch our ADSL2+ offerings during September along with a new website and tariffs. It is crazy something as simple as our company name is causing such a delay!"

Adrian Kennard (Director), AAISP

"We are experiencing some XML issues during the ordering process but are working closely with Andrews & Arnold to resolve this issue as soon as possible."

BT Wholesale Spokesman

The author ironically notes that he made a similar error in the past when writing the RSS feed for the old ADSLguide.org.uk website (which resulted in errors if a news item had an ampersand in its title), but in defence points out he is not a programmer by trade ;)

Businesses lose out as broadband falls over

Wednesday 27 August 2008 12:15:35 by Andrew Ferguson

The BBC has highlighted a broadband problem that is affecting businesses in the town of Penrhyndeudraeth, Gwynedd. This latest incident started on 18th August, and is the third problem for the area since November 2007.

It is not clear whether there is a total loss of broadband in the town, or whether just some are affected. It is entirely possible that the exchange based DSLAM has some faulty line cards meaning some ADSL lines will still be working, or that the fault lies outside the exchange. Given that the fault has been ongoing for a week, the suggestion is that it needs something more than a simple reset.

In the cases of businesses, while it may sound a glib response, ensuring you have some form of backup connection is very important, for many small businesses a dial-up or mobile broadband connection would allow important emails to be received and sent, or perhaps have a reciprocal arrangement to share a broadband connection with a company on another exchange. For consumers when it is your own connection, borrowing the neighbours or visiting a Wi-Fi hotspot is the simplest answer.

We have asked BT Wholesale for more information on the problem, and those affected still should report problems via their broadband provider. Alas given the small size of Penrhyndeudraeth it is likely that the various LLU providers will never make an appearance, so people are stuck with the BT Wholesale based offerings.

American Airlines launch aircraft based mobile broadband service

Thursday 21 August 2008 16:02:33 by John Hunt

Internet in the air is making a comeback after various trials over the years. This time it is American Airlines who are launching a service, although again it is a three to six month trial. The service will be available on American's Boeing 767-200 fleet on non-stop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles or New York and Miami.

Access is via WiFi on the plane which connects to Aircell's air-to-ground (ATG) broadband system which works once the aircraft has reached 10,000 feet. Users will be able to do all the usual Internet activity although VoIP is not available. The service costs $12.95 on flights longer than three hours. Delta Airlines also announced earlier this month that they were rolling the system out to more than 330 of their domestic aircraft fleet.

It is definitely encouraging to see airlines embracing Internet access in the air even if it is limited to domestic flights at the moment. In a similar vein, Ofcom consulted last year on the use of mobile phones onboard aircraft and Air France started trials with onair to offer mobile services in April.

T-Mobile join the free laptop with mobile broadband bundles

Thursday 21 August 2008 15:09:55 by John Hunt

T-Mobile is the latest to join the 'free laptop with mobile broadband' clan with a new 24 month plan that gets you a laptop, free USB mobile broadband modem, 200 texts per month and unlimited mobile Internet access for £30/month. Also included is access to T-Mobile WiFi hotspots. The laptop is an Acer TravelMate 5320 worth £350.

Users now have to choose between the offers available. Orange announced a laptop deal earlier this week that costs £25 per month and comes with an Asus Eee PC 900. Three also started mobile broadband with a laptop this month which also starts at £30 for one of three HP laptops. Vodafone are expected to follow suit soon.

One thing that may tempt users towards T-Mobile is the included hot spot access which allows users access to T-Mobile WiFi hotspots to supplement the mobile broadband service. Although marketed as unlimited, users should be sure to check the small print as the laptop bundle has a fair usage policy of 3GB (gigabytes) per month. T-Mobile won't charge you more if you go over, but may restrict your usage. Orange also bundle 3GB but charge 1.46p per MB (megabyte) if you go over the 3GB cap (and up to £6.46 per MB if roaming). Three include a 5GB monthly allowance and charge 10p per MB when exceeding the usage.

BBC faces criticism on iPlayer hosting change

Wednesday 20 August 2008 20:14:48 by Sebastien Lahtinen

BBC iPlayer is a popular TV catch-up service allowing viewers to re-play BBC content up to seven days after it was originally broadcast on terrestrial TV. The coverage of the Olympics have proven particularly popular with PlusNet reporting a 200% increase in iPlayer usage during the opening ceremony.

In the last few months, there has been increased discussion about the costs of delivering content from the Internet to the end user, and in particular, applications like iPlayer which are quite bandwidth intensive. Service providers are struggling to meet the bandwidth demands of users who are getting increasingly used to bandwidth hungry applications, at a price the users are willing to pay.

In a blog post by Anthony Rose, head of BBC Digital Media Technology, it has emerged that the BBC is in the process of switching its iPlayer hosting from current content distribution network (CDN) Akamai to Level 3 Communications prompting concern from a number of service providers about the increased cost burden this is likely to place on them.

"Zen Internet is expecting the decision to increase its costs as economically, all but a select few large networks must pay Level(3) to receive traffic originated within their network. The previous solution using Akamai used content hosted on a large number of small networks which are sited close to end-users and to which access is freely given. This removes the reliance on a single network, improving robustness."

Zen Internet Spokesman

This may not seem significant to the average user, but in reality this is likely to increase the costs for small and medium sized service providers due to the way traffic on the Internet is exchanged. The BBC's own network and Akamai are known within the service provider community as "open peers" which means they will usually exchange traffic with anyone who asks free-of-charge by "peering" with other network operators. On the other hand, Level 3 is a tier-1 network which has a very strict peering policy, only exchanging traffic with the largest of network operators free-of-charge. Those not able to 'peer' will have no option but to pay either Level 3 or another company who peers with Level 3 for the service of exchanging traffic.

There is a suspicion, at least within part of the network operator community, that the BBC is reducing its hosting costs by switching from Akamai to Level 3, since Level 3 is able to charge service providers for access to its network, and thus shifting costs from the BBC to the broadband service providers which may put pressure on the price margins of smaller providers.

Orange in mobile broadband promotion

Tuesday 19 August 2008 13:53:23 by Andrew Ferguson

The number of people using mobile broadband dongles for internet access when out and about and at home is on the increase. Orange is trying to improve its customer numbers by launching a mobile broadband with laptop bundle for £25 a month.

The mobile broadband is supplied via a USB dongle and comes with 3GB of data allowance, plus 100 free texts. The charges for going over the allowance are high compared to ADSL services at 1.46 pence per MB (£15 per GB). If abroad every MB used is charged at £3 per MB in Europe and £6.46 per MB elsewhere. The laptop is an Asus Eee PC 900 with Windows XP and 16GB of solid state storage, weighing just 0.99kg. Orange value the laptop at £299.

The 24 month contract is lengthy, and while people may find that their Internet access easily fits in the 3GB a month currently, if switching from dial-up the tendency is for people to consume more audio and video eating into the allowance quickly. With the same mobile deal from Orange available for £15 a month, then under this new deal you are effectively paying £240 for the laptop, and a little bit of looking reveals other Eee computers with varying specifications from £160 to £300.

At this time we are aware of only one mobile broadband provider that does not charge extra if you go over the bundled data allowance, and that is T-Mobile who instead restrict usage once over the limit. If mobile broadband is to succeed and not be a flash in the pan, the various providers need to address the massive costs of going over the bundled data allowance, and make it very clear when using the device abroad what the costs of access are. At £3 per MB, just checking your email a couple of times while on holiday could easily set you back £10 to £20.

Future uncertain for Be Home Monitor Service

Friday 15 August 2008 19:14:32 by Andrew Ferguson

The Be Home Monitor service which was based around a wireless IP Network Camera and a small key fob that you could use to arm the system looks set to go through a bumpy patch. Subscribers to the £5 a month service should have received the following letter by now:

"Dear Be member,

We hope that you have been enjoying your Be Home Monitor and the great benefits that the product and service have provided. Unfortunately, we need to inform you that this service is going to be withdrawn. The Be Home Monitor Service will end on 18th September 2008. This is when the contract with our partner who provides the service comes to an end.

We are looking into several options as alternatives and we will come back to you via email on the 20th August 2008 with an update.

Best wishes,

The Be Team "

Letter from Be Team

It looks like the contract for the running of the service is up for renegotiation and that things may not have gone too well. Hopefully further information will be available by 20th August.

Most IP network cameras can run without the need for any external service by having a small web server built into them. If the camera on the Be service has this ability then all is not lost, and many models allow you to programme email alerts into the camera directly. Where people will stand legally with respect to Be ceasing the service less than a year after starting, particularly in view of the £150 cost of the camera remains to be seen, fingers crossed an alternative solution that can use the current hardware will emerge.

Interestingly another service that made use of SMS messaging is closing down, and that is SMS alerts from Twitter. So it may be the cost of the 100 SMS and 10 MMS messages added to the other costs of the Home Monitor Service make it unattractive to the company running this side of things.

Update Tuesday 19th August: Be has issued a short update prior to the full update for members due on 20th August.

"Hi there,

We just wanted to let you know more about the withdrawal of the Be Home Monitor service.

Unfortunately, the contract with our supplier has ended and we are now looking into alternatives and the best possible next steps for the service.

We are working to get as much information as possible together on the next steps for all of our members that use the Home Monitor service. We will be able to provide you with a further update on the situation on Wednesday 20 August after we have communicated with members.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please contact Ben Matthews (Hotwire PR – Be’s PR agency) at Ben.Matthews@hotwirepr.com.

We will continue to provide a premium broadband experience to our members, as this core service will not be affected by this issue.

Many thanks for your understanding in this matter and we will resolve any issues as soon as possible.

Best Wishes,

The Be Team"

Statement from Be on Home Monitor Service

What broadband speeds could the UK copper loop manage?

Friday 15 August 2008 12:47:18 by Andrew Ferguson

In an ideal world replacement of the copper local loop would happen in the next couple of years, but even the recent £1.5bn programme from BT suggests that the copper local loop is to largely remain. Ofcom has published a paper titled 'Assessment of the theoretical limits of copper in the last mile' which gives some idea of what is in theory possible over the existing infrastructure.

While the limits are theoretical, the paper does provide useful information on why a cabinet led deployment of VDSL and faster variants of DSL such as VDSL2 would improve speeds for more people than sticking to the current exchange led upgrades. The assessment is UK based, and takes into consideration areas like crosstalk, power levels to arrive at reasonably sensible figures that we may see broadband speeds approaching in the future.

Click image for full size version

The above chart shows what is hopefully common knowledge, that ADSL and ADSL2+ only supply their best speeds to a small proportion of telephone lines. If UK copper loop based broadband stays stuck in the exchange, then improvements in technology will only benefit a limited number of lines.

Click image for full size version

By moving the DSL hardware into the street cabinet, then the results are very different, in theory around 80% of lines then have a theoretical maximum of some 250Mbps. The graph also shows the speeds VDSL is expected to achieve, hopefully VDSL2 will supercede VDSL before it is rolled out, which for shorter lines (0.5km) may reach speeds of 100Mbps.

The basic distribution of line lengths across the over 20 million telephone lines is the UK suggests that 18% of telephone lines are under 2km long, 43% under 3km, an unlucky 6% have a line longer than 5.5km. The situation if you look at the length of the telephone from the property to the street cabinet (known as the D side) is very different, only around 12% of lines are longer than 1km, with something like just 0.1% or 0.2% longer than 3km.

So has the copper local loop reached the end of its lifespan? Not quite, but it is getting close, Fibre to the cabinet architectures will benefit broadband speeds greatly. This data will help communications providers to judge whether the life span of cabinet based broadband is worth the investment, or should a full fibre to the home architecture be used?

In some areas such as Bournemouth and Dundee within a year or two the copper local loop may start to see a decrease in usage as people switch to fibre based connections. For blocks of flats, the Metro-Ethernet deployments employed by Ask4 could start to prove popular. Metro-Ethernet involves running a fibre to the basement of a block of flats, and using Ethernet to distribute it around the building. Then of course there is cable broadband which has the ability to run at 200Mbps or maybe even 400Mbps using DOCSIS 3.0 in the future.

The one technology that is playing catch-up is the various mobile broadband technologies which are now starting to look at 14.4Mbps connections, but just like ADSL these suffer from signal strength issues, and while 3G coverage may claim to be 90% there is no indication of the actual connection speeds enjoyed in these areas.

Details of Virgin Media cable product leak out

Friday 15 August 2008 09:07:43 by Andrew Ferguson

It is impossible to know for sure whether the figures are what will apply to the product at launch, and with the product roll-out probably still some months away there is plenty of time for Virgin Media to change the figures.

So what has leaked out about the Virgin Media 50Mbps cable broadband package? Apparently it will have a 1.5Mbps upload speed, and the traffic management will only apply between the hours of 4pm to 9pm, with a trigger level of 6GB downloaded in the five hours. Those exceeding this limit will see their maximum speed reduced to 10Mbps for downloads and 0.5Mbps for upload traffic.

Update 11am Virgin Media has been in touch to point out that there is no traffic management on the 50Mbps tier for the trial connections, and no management levels have even been tested for product launch. So it seems the talk on forums is just that, idle chit chat and speculation.

"Virgin Media will be pioneering the UK's fastest broadband service with our 50Mb service due to roll-out from late 2008. As we're using brand new technology, twinned with significant core network upgrades, we've yet to determine if there will be traffic management on this service and if so, at what levels these might be."

Virgin Media spokesperson

If the product does launch with no traffic management and the price premium over the 20Mbps product is not too large then the Virgin Media will have a product that only faces competition from providers like Ask4 and the full fibre network of H2O networks. A few ADSL2+ providers using their own unbundled network operate with no real limits, but even when BT launches fibre products it is unlikely to have a free for all of the scale Virgin Media is promising with its 50Mbps product

A 50Mbps connection, if allowed to run flat out for a month would download 16000GB (16 TeraBytes), hard drive storage for this amount of data would cost over £1000, or fill 1700 double layer DVDs.

Playlouder could reemerge in deal with Virgin Media

Thursday 14 August 2008 15:52:40 by Andrew Ferguson

Some will of heard of the broadband provider Playlouder who offer a broadband service with bundled music downloads in the UK. The firm classifies itself as a Music Service Provider (MSP) and it is thought to be in talks with Virgin Media over a deal that would see music rights holders receiving payment for material downloaded over peer-to-peer (p2p) networks.

There is an explanation of how Playlouder envisages this working over on paidcontent.co.uk. The system works by using a combination of deep inspection technology and Audible Magic to allow people to download music from torrents and other P2P networks and even share it with other users while tracking which tracks have been downloaded. This doesn't come for free however, the idea being that the broadband provider can charge a fee for this unlimited access to music.

At first sight there is no incentive for people to pay extra for this subscription, but given the recent memorandum of understanding that will see warning letters getting sent out, the pressure will build on people to switch to legal music download sources. If the figure of £5 a month was to become reality then the chance of households signing up will be fairly high, and in the case of Virgin Media there may be scope for including the deal for free with the premium services such as the 20Mbps service.

The problem will be that as p2p networks evolve there is constant race between these clients and the deep inspection networks. There will be some who have become so used to getting all their digital content for free that no matter how cheap a subscription they will endeavour to employ encryption techniques to evade detection.

Broadband providers are likely to be striking a number of deals like this over the coming months, and if the amount of money flowing towards the record companies improves then bodies like the BPI may relax the pressure on the government to introduce more restrictive legislation. If full legislation is introduced we may see people getting blacklisted from having an internet connection after being caught downloading music illegally.

Fallacy of the anonymous Internet vanishing

Thursday 14 August 2008 15:45:53 by Andrew Ferguson

The Internet is a very powerful tool and this has not escaped the notice of people who wish to subvert the law. Some countries around the world have very strict controls, with massive Internet firewalls to ensure the public only sees what the government wants them to see. There is a common feeling that the UK is moving to a surveillance society, and with laws coming that will require communications providers to retain telephone and internet records and allow local councils and public bodies access to these the parallels with the old East Germany will be obvious to many.

A consultation period is running on the final phase of the Transposition of Directive 2006/24/EC which ends on 31st October 2008. The consultation period covers the areas of internet access, internet telephone service, and internet mail. At some 300 plus pages, the document is not easy going, but it is keen to point out that while the law would require retention of the fact an email went from Fred to John on 14th August 2008, the content of the email would not be recorded.

The report confirms that a number of communications providers already retain the necessary records as part of their normal business or under previous voluntary schemes. The concern of many will centre around areas like how RIPA has been used by local councils. The family in Dorset that was under surveillance for three weeks could with the new law expect the council to be trawling their email records for any communication with a school outside their catchment area.

The consultation paper talks about retention of internet connection info, e.g. where and when, internet telephony and e-mail, but does not mention other areas such as instant messaging. It is possible that due to the voice and video aspect of most instant messaging applications these will count as internet telephony. The successes under current retention policies are highlighted in the paper, but there is little talk of how false positives will be handled, and what abuse safe guards are in place. The aim of the regulations are "to ensure that this data is available for a minimum of 12 months to assist in the investigation, detection and prosecution of serious crime".

There will be concerns about those with access to these powers abusing them. One could see a local councillor perhaps abusing the powers to spy on political opponents. Most people will accept that investigations into serious crimes such as child abuse and kidnaps will benefit from the obligation to retain internet communications data but public confidence in such measures for local authorities is unlikely to be strong.

Ofcom report indicates changes in broadband market

Thursday 14 August 2008 09:45:35 by Sebastien Lahtinen

Ofcom has this morning published its UK Communications Market Review 2008 report.

The report shows that whilst availability of DSL and cable broadband as a whole has remained fairly static from 2006 to 2007, 3G mobile broadband has increased in coverage from 70% to 90% (based on the proportion of the population living in postal districts where at least one of the mobile phone companies reports at least 75% 3G coverage). It also shows that availability of LLU has increased from 67% to 80% of households connected to an LLU-enabled exchange. Almost half of the LLU enabled exchanges had more than three providers offering services indicating that LLU rollout is primarily in the more populated exchanges and showing the need for the core services to be offered by BT in the more rural ones at the wholesale level.

According to Ofcom the average blended headline speed increased from 3.6 Mbps at the end of 2006 to 5.9Mbps at the end of March 2008. It is however somewhat questionable how much of this is reflected in true speeds received by end users. Previous information we have published gave an average throughput speed for the UK of 3238Kbps from over 6000 locations around the UK in June 2008. Once the overheads inherent in ADSL communication are accounted for this translates to a headline speed of around 3.7Mbps. Also, the proportion of homes taking broadband services increased from 52 to 58% by Q1/08. This is a slow-down in growth with previous years' growth being around 10%. LLU services however are still in stronger growth phases.

The report in general reports a slow-down in new fixed broadband users as the market is reaching closer to saturation, explaining the decision by many broadband service providers to switch marketing tactics from attracting new broadband users to targeting 'switchers' currently receiving service from competing providers. This means competition will be as fierce as ever. Also, the emergence of mobile broadband in 2008 is presenting a significant risk to the fixed broadband providers with 75% of those with access to mobile broadband using it at home. This option is particularly useful to those with very limited broadband requirements, especially if they travel a lot or use their broadband service from more than one location. We are confident however that over time, fixed broadband services will not as a whole be disadvantaged as the bandwidth requirements rise with increasing adoption of bandwidth-hungry services such as BBC's iPlayer, etc.

Bundling of services has remained at the 40% level since 2006 although Ofcom suggests more complex bundles are becoming increasingly popular with triple-play (telephone, broadband and television services) taking over from smaller 'double-play' bundles of telephone/broadband services.

These figures will be of concern to the small and medium sized providers as the trend towards bundling of communications and entertainment services is driving consumers toward more complex series of packages from larger operators able to deliver triple and quad play services, pushing smaller operators further into the niche markets.

Broadband and phone bundles cheaper than broadband alone

Tuesday 12 August 2008 13:02:54 by Andrew Ferguson

Bundling of broadband with other services such as telephone, VoIP and IPTV packages has been a large growth area in the UK broadband market since 2006. Point Topic has taken a look at the average pricing for products around the world, and shows that while adding a telephone or VoIP deal to a broadband service can lower the headline monthly fee, adding IPTV can increase the amount you pay.

There are a number of reasons communication providers are keen to get us all signed up to bundles, particularly telephone services, as the calls we make over the telephone line add to the revenue thus increasing their profit margins. Also with multiple service contracts, people are much less likely to switch to another provider as comparing bundles is still difficult. In the case of telephone bundles factors like call set-up charges and the rates for landline to mobile calls can vary greatly and make comparisons a complex process. One thing to be aware of is that if you are ever offered a good deal or bundle by your existing provider, that this will often mean you are entering in a new 12 month (or longer) contract.

The fact that IPTV services generally add to the package price are probably down to the the need to have a broadband network dimensioned to handle people making widespread use of TV over broadband, as well as the cost of signing content deals with the various movie studios and content providers.