Photo: Virgin

‘Get unlimited broadband with speeds up to….’ Have you ever noticed these commercials from British broadband service providers? They’re no different from ‘this product is clinically proven’ because with the latter, you’re never told what they are clinically proven to do and the former is a misleading indicator, when in fact you should be told what your average speed is.

Ofcom has had enough of this and is grading providers according to average speed. Virgin Media is in support of this cause, and is doing the same of its own volition.

Virgin Media, who benefit from having a high-speed fibre optics network that, in turn, allow their average speeds to mimic their reported ‘up to’ speeds, are calling for providers to be more honest about the actual speeds, too. And, in the interest of not being hypocritical, Virgin media has set up a ‘speed honesty’ site, wherein it will publically publish its average speeds

Controlling the problem

Ofcom is already publishing its own average speed results for the various networks so consumers know what they’re actually getting and the disparity is often times colossal. What the Virgin Media broadband team is doing is controlling the problem and making itself look good in the process.

This way, even though it’s a pure business tactic, they look like they’ve got their consumer at heart.

Fighting words

Jon James, who is the Virgin Media broadband team’s executive director said: ‘People are paying for faster and faster broadband but being ripped off by unscrupulous providers who can’t deliver their promised speeds to even a single customer.’ So what’s the solution James, old chap? ‘A change in advertising is urgently needed to build consumer confidence in super-fast broadband and the industry more generally,’ is Mr. James’ opinion.

Let’s be unequivocal here: British broadband service providers should not be allowed to advertise up to speeds. Not at all. Average speeds are a better indicator of what you’re paying for, making it simpler to grade the quality of each British broadband service provider. The Virgin Media broadband teams realise this. Everybody else needs to now follow suit.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Finland becomes the world’s first country where broadband access is a legal right for every citizen. You read right, Finland has made having access to the internet a right.

Starting yesterday, 1 July 2010, every Finn has a right to broadband connectivity of 1Mbps at a minimum. With a reported 96% percent of Finland’s population already compliant with the law, only another 4000 homes need to get broadband access. As if the fact that the entire nation will be on broadband is not a big enough deal, the Finnish government has committed to upping the minimum speed everybody has a right to 100MB per second by 2015. That’s a 100 times increase in Finland internet speeds in five years as a legal right.

Why the move

Finnish communication minister, Suvi Linden, who oversees Finland internet strategies, told the BBC why this was such a big deal, saying: “We considered the role of the internet in Finns everyday life. Internet services are no longer just for entertainment.” She continued, saying “Finland has worked hard to develop an information society and a couple of years ago we realised not everyone had access”. So, taking a very progressive move, the government made it law, now compelling telecommunications companies to provide service to every citizen. How’s that for a progressive government

How does the UK stack up?

By comparison, broadband penetration in the United Kingdom is at a respectable 73%. At governmental level, one major campaigning point of the recent elections was how fast a connection and to how many people each party could deliver British citizens. In comparison, the ConDem government has committed to delivering 2Mbps broadband to every home come 2012. But it does not appear that they will make having the Internet a right, as well.

This is one example of government intervention in telecommunications having a positive impact on ISPs and widespread broadband connectivity. Sure, the challenges locations like the UK, with its dispersed population are more difficult to circumvent than those faced by countries with high population density, like Finland, but solutions do exist. Making the Internet a right, a basic human right like free speech and freedom of religion is as progressive as it gets. And it’s no wonder the Finland Internet services and networks are among the best in the world.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

As broadband technology proliferates and more and more laptops come without Ethernet ports, wireless technology has finally come of age. We look at what you need to consider for a wireless home network setup, ranging from choosing the right broadband service providers to purchasing the right router.

One: Your needs

Do you really need any broadband service in your home? An odd question to probably 95 per cent of our readership, but not everybody needs broadband in the home and at £15 per month for a decent service, it isn’t altogether free. So, for the small handful of you that are concerned Internet in the home and performing a wireless home network setup would be more unnecessary luxury than necessity, think hard and carefully about whether you want this package at all.

Two: Picking a broadband service provider

Many broadband services in the UK are tethered to landlines, so if you have a line in your home, your service provider can easily add broadband connectivity too. But if you are considering switching your broadband service provider, or do not already have a service provider, tools like Broadband Choices are fantastic for selecting the right product relative to where you live.

Three: Your home network

Now that you have a broadband line in your home, you’re going to need to get a broadband router and setup your home network. First things first – do you want to a wired or wireless router setup? The truth is wired routing is dying and many of today’s latest gadgets – most notably smartphones and tablets – can only connect via wi-fi. As such, we’d recommend you stay away from wired only and choose a hybrid wireless-wired routing solution for those devices that do still run on Ethernet.

Make sure it supports the latest 802.11n routing technology (if it does, it will say so on the box), and buy only from reputable companies. We’re partial to Netgear routers for the home user due to their simple yet sophisticated interfacing, which makes wireless home network setup dead easy. The Netgear DG2000 is an established stalwart in home networking, and has plenty routing capability for even the most demanding home user.

Four: Getting your network working

You’re pretty much there, now. All you need to do is insert your user details into you router and off you go. These details you will receive from your service provider, while details on entering them will be specified in your router’s manual.

Is there anything we’ve overlooked, or any additions we could make to make this list even easier for beginners setting up their own home network? Let us know in the comments.

Photo: Ofcom

Anyone who has ever signed a long-term contract with landline or broadband providers knows the feeling of seeing a better deal come by that you cannot take up because you’re locked into a torrid contract with very high early termination fees. That’s about to change, with Ofcom pressuring TalkTalk, BT and Virgin to slash the price of their contract termination fees.

What is a contract termination fee?

A contract termination fee is the amount of money one is still liable to pay for every month left on a contract they’ve recently cancelled. The termination fee is less than the monthly subscription fee, but is often still very high. Ofcom has pressured the major UK broadband providers to reduce this cost, so as to ‘reflect the costs that the providers save by no longer providing the service’ to you.

New pricing

Photo: TalkTalk

In some instances, TalkTalk, BT and Virgin would be reducing the cost of contract termination fees by as much as 85 per cent.

TalkTalk is first out the gate with termination fees revision, which previously ranged from £14.44 to £33.48, to between £3.00 and £8.00. The termination fee is relative to the package that you are on, and this pricing model kicked in on 1 June 2010.

Virgin Media and BT will follow suit from 1 October 2010. With respect to Virgin Media contract cancellations, while charges currently range from £11.99 to £25.99 they will be reduced to £4.00 to £9.00. BT’s contract termination fee sits at £11.54 to £16.53 for every month left on your contract. Come 1 October, that will range between £2.00 and £5.00.

Photo: Virgin

Ofcom has said that they will pressure (and potentially fine) smaller broadband providers to follow suit in slashing these fees.

You can read Ofcom’s full report and pricing revisions here, in case you’re currently trying to escape a contract you’re unhappy with.

Good on ya, Ofcom.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Jeremy Hunt, Britain’s culture secretary, pledged £300 million would be used  come the current parliament to ensure Britain’s broadband would be second to none, in Europe, by being ‘the best superfast broadband’ on the continent.

The challenge – rural areas

While people often laud places like Norway and Finland for their deep broadband penetration, what they often overlook is the tight population density in those places. People live so close together that deploying a blanket high speed broadband network is relatively inexpensive. British broadband deployment does not have this luxury, with many locales being remote and many areas quite rural.

In this respect, British ISP providers, or private sector funds, are uneasy about financing this expansion. Hunt is not blind to this, indicating a high priority of his government is to deliver broadband to rural areas, so that government does not ‘open up a new digital divide between the urban areas and rural communities’ with these initiatives.,

Electioneering

British broadband policy was central to the recent election that saw the coalition government of David Cameron and Nick Clegg overthrow Gordon Brown. Differing policies like blanket coverage of at least 2mb per second lines were available throughout the UK, as proposed by the ousted Labour government, which Hunt supported but felt was ‘pitifully unambitious’. Other plans from running parties was to up the average speed of broadband significantly, but in concentrated, population dense and wealthier areas only – leaving those in rural locations in the cold, somewhat.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

Oddly enough, Jeremy Hunt is not once committal to what the minimum speed of this ‘superfast broadband’ network would be, which in its self is rather ‘unambitious’. To use buzzwords to diverge away from the key questions – how fast, how stable, and at what price – does British ISP services and British broadband in general a disservice, as well as the British public, too. People now know enough to ask the right questions, but politicians still don’t volunteer the proper answer.

In addition to Joe Public, British ISP service providers and manufacturers of broadband equipment stand to benefit most from these initiatives, meaning considerable lobbying may occur behind the scenes, too.

Photo: Sky

Sky is altering its broadband package, with all customers soon to get 20mbs, as well as ‘true’ unlimited broadband packages for £7.50.

1 June, D-Day

The Sky broadband free offering is to be boosted to the lines max capacity, which is 20mbps, with a 2GB cap on that.

For people who have Sky TV as well as Sky Talk, £7.50 monthly will buy them what Sky deems the only ‘truly unlimited’ broadband offering, in addition to the boost to 20mbs.

Photo: Stock.Xchng

By truly unlimited, Sky broadband claims to have neither a ‘fair use’ policy nor does it shape traffic, meaning over a certain threshold of data used, the company won’t rein in your usage, nor does it throttle your linespeed at any time during the day. This, in effect, means usage will remain consistent and without recourse, unless of course, you’re doing something illegal, and Sky is quick to point out that it is the only ISP with this policy.

Fast broadband good for everybody

Photo: Stock.Xchng

As Virgin Media has been at the bleeding edge of UK broadband speed, and political parties have had a variety of broadband plans built into their election campaigns, including high speed broadband for all, this move by Sky broadband is notable and beneficial to everybody. Not only does this greater broadband speed mean increased need for broadband networking tools from companies like Cisco and Netgear, it also means the Digital Britain initiative is coming to the fore. With a direct relationship existing between Internet speeds and number of impressions served as well as engagement, e-commerce and online advertisers will have more opportunity to sell their goods, thus boosting the economy.

Between these packages, free and unlimited broadband, and Sky 3D’s methodical rollout, Sky’s engineers and product development teams have clearly been very busy. Whether this will result in increased market share is yet to be revealed.

Photo: Google

Google recently announced it plans to provide at least 50,000 US homes with 1GB/sec broadband connectivity in a limited test. This number could soon swell up to 500,000, which has other broadband telecoms very concerned.

The implications of all this speed

The reason most telecoms are scared is because domestic speeds of this kind are unheard of in the home. The fastest broadband available in the US at present peaks at 50mb/sec, which is 20 times slower than Google’s proposed test. The average speed lingers at under 4mb/sec, which is 250 times slower than Google’s proposed offering. At 1GB/sec, consumers can download data at a rate of 100mb/sec. That means a full album in less than one second, the average 1080p HD movie in about 60 seconds and the equivalent of a terabyte worth of data – that’s 1000 gigabytes – in less than three hours.

Seattle indicate interest

In the wake of Google’s announcement, Seattle mayor Mike McGinn has indicated his city’s willingness to accept the offer as well as support Google’s engineers in this move. Other wealthy US cities like San Francisco, and Los Angeles are likely to avail themselves as a potential home for Google’s test run.

Why the competition is really afraid

Photo: Google

This interest at a city level, coupled with other factors, has the competition uneasy. Google, an exceptionally influential and flush company, often uses its excess cash on hand to experiment in – and upend – markets new to it. Google recently made a similar move in the GPS space, where it threw down the gauntlet on that market’s incumbents, and US broadband telecoms fear Google will do the same to their industry. In the GPS space, it appears the Silicon Valley giant plans to use broadband as a new platform for its search initiatives. This broadband initiative appears to be a means for Google to push their suite of web applications to consumers. Both of these strategies reinforce Google’s core business – search. This alternate business model – where Google transfers the costs of an offering from consumers to advertisers – is what undermines competitors, who charge their customers directly.

What it all means

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

For consumers, especially the lucky few who will get to participate in this test, this news is very encouraging. It is a long-held belief that with greater Internet speed, greater technological advancements in all industries – particularly the sciences and medical industry – will soon follow. Depending on what price Google is able to offer this service for, if it ever comes out of test mode it could have an unprecedented effect on the costs of broadband services, crushing prices and forcing several competing telecom companies out of the market completely.

The big question mark is related to privacy. Google, who already collect data on their users’ search habits, are often in the spotlight for how they should be able to use and collect this data. Now, being essentially an ISP in addition to being the world’s search engine of choice, the company will ostensibly be able to collect information on a user’s every move on the Internet, which is concerning to say the least. How much control is too much control? Or should the question be focused on the costs of technological advancements?

Top 10 Broadband, the mobile broadband comparison site has recently revealed that the 3G-embedded mobile computing devices are the most preferred gadgets these days. It totally contradicts the study that Disruptive Analysis has made which says that demand for 3G-embedded laptops and netbooks has been exaggerated. Disruptive Analysis clearly points out that the demand projections for the 3G embedded mobile computing devices have been hyped by PC manufacturers and the adoption of such devices on a large scale is still a dream that has yet to come true.

But the Top 10 Broadband completely disagrees with this and says that the 3G embedded mobile computing devices are now preferred by almost every mobile computing enthusiast. More and more notebooks, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad SL300 are also coming with integrated 3G connectivity as a standard feature. In November, over 1000 such gadgets were sold. According to the Top 10 Broadband’s marketing manager Jessica McArdle, “Demand for 3G-embedded laptop broadband deals has rocketed since the first consumer-targeted offer was launched in September 2008. Given how fast they are selling, we are baffled by these recent projections which seem to be speculative and have no grounding in actual broadband product sales. Mobile broadband embedded laptops are seen as the compact, hassle-free alternative to using external mobile broadband dongles to connect to the internet on the go. Additionally at a time when belts are being tightened across the country, they can represent terrific value for consumers.”

Nowadays more and more Internet users are starting to prefer mobile broadband services over the traditional ADSL lines. This is because many computing enthusiasts have switched over to portable computing from desktop PCs. This also has changed the way people work, play and enjoy.

Therefore, next generation consumers not only want Internet on the go, but also demand high speed data transfer. Some major international carriers have already started to offer mobile Internet services to their clients and in following the competition the Virgin Mobile has also decided to dip its toe into mobile broadband market.

Virgin Mobile is already into the manufacturing of hi-fi mobile phones. Thus, stepping into mobile Internet is not too much trouble for it. Virgin Mobile is offering its new service under different deals for those who already receive its services and for those who are opting for it for the first time. The newbies will have to pay £15 per month, on an 18-month contract under which they will get a 3GB monthly download allowance along with a free USB modem. The modem is around the size of a WLAN USB stick like the LM Technologies Wireless USB Dongle, except it accesses the internet via mobile broadband. Whether you want to carry your day to day work or browse through heavy websites containing real time media applications such as YouTube, this modem can handle enough bandwidth to support such tasks. Software is also supplied along with the whole package which let the users keep track of their data usage.