How bad is superfast broadband uptake?

Friday, November 11th, 2011

We’ve been waiting for years for true “superfast” fibre-optic broadband, but now it’s here it seems few people actually want it. At least, that’s the impression given by Ofcom chief Ed Richards’ comments earlier this week, when he said superfast (24Mbits/sec+) broadband uptake was “still low” and largely confined to families with teenage children.

How low is “low”? We asked BT for its latest fibre figures. More than six million premises now have access to BT’s fibre lines, but only 300,000 customers have actually signed up for the service. That’s a less than impressive sounding conversion rate of 5%.

It’s even less impressive when you consider that BT Infinity fibre costs no more than the company’s most expensive ADSL package, and that the company admits to “really going for it” in terms of marketing fibre to customers. People are being offered an effectively free speed upgrade and many seemingly don’t want it.

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“Unlimited” is limited, but “truly unlimited” isn’t. Got it?

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

We’ve long known the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) takes a rather liberal view of dictionary definitions, but an adjudication against T-Mobile this morning at last provides clarity over exactly how our fearless advertising watchdog defines the term “unlimited”.

T-Mobile was sent to the headmaster’s office for describing its smartphone data contracts as “truly unlimited”, even though it barred services such as tethering, VoIP and P2P.

That was beyond the pale, according to the advertising overlord, which delivered the following guidance in its adjudication:

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The rock and a hard place of Britain’s broadband network

Tuesday, August 30th, 2011

Put yourself in the shoes of Broadband Delivery UK – the Government body charged with making Britain’s internet network go whoosh. Well, more pffft when you consider the pathetically lowly target of universal 2Mbits/sec connections by 2015.

You’ve got only £362 million of funding to kickstart fibre broadband projects, which in relative terms is like walking into a Porsche showroom with £1,000 in cash and hoping to drive away in a new 911.

You’ve essentially got two choices: hand that money to the big boys such as BT and Virgin Media (via local councils) in the hope that it will prompt them to extend their fibre footprint to areas that wouldn’t otherwise stack up financially; or, pump the cash into a local fibre project.

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Forgotten countryside should look to satellite broadband

Wednesday, August 17th, 2011

Rural broadband is one of those topics that divides opinion as certainly as politics. The urban-rural internet split is one of the most parochial issues in technology, outside anything involving Apple.

Many people living in the countryside, constantly bombarded for adverts for 100Mbits/sec broadband, are sick to the back teeth of the promised benefits of “next-generation access” that has attracted massive funding from the private sector, and a rather more modest £530m from the Government.

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Who are the real broadband conmen: the ISPs or the ASA?

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

When you’ve dug yourself a hole, stop digging. Or if you’re the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), keep going until you hit the molten core of the Earth itself.

Regular PC Pro readers will know how the ASA has allowed ISPs to over-egg the speed of their broadband connections by permitting them to advertise fantasy “up to” speeds, which Ofcom’s research has proven time and again are pure fiction. Even Ofcom itself called for this insidious practice to stop over a year ago, since when the ASA has dithered with a year-long consultation on the use of “up to” speeds, but still hasn’t arrived at a conclusion.

Consequently, one ISP took matters into its own hands. Last year, Virgin Media launched its Stop The Broadband Con website, calling on ISPs to advertise typical rather than maximum speeds – very similar recommendations to those made by Ofcom itself.

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Named and shamed: the “unlimited” liars

Friday, March 25th, 2011

For years, fixed and mobile broadband providers have used the term “unlimited” to advertise services that are anything but.

We’ve moaned about it for years, and last month even our normally docile telecoms regulator said the term “unlimited” was being abused.  “There are people offering unlimited packages that contain a fair-use policy that means what you are getting is not unlimited,” said Ofcom chief executive Ed Richards. “If you are claiming unlimited then it needs to be unlimited.”

It seems the industry wasn’t listening. New data tariffs are still being advertised as “unlimited” even when they have specific download caps.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been conducting a review of broadband advertising, but frankly, we’re tired of waiting for this weak-kneed, self-regulating body to get its act together.

So, from now on, whenever we see a new tariff being advertised as “unlimited” when it patently isn’t, we’re going to add it to our blog of shame.

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Who’s really behind the net neutrality code?

Friday, March 11th, 2011

The news that major ISPs are on the verge of signing up to a Broadband Stakeholder Group code of conduct on net neutrality and traffic management might sound like good news for consumers, but what will it do for the net neutrality debate?

The issue of how ISPs treat packets of data from various sources, and whether they can prioritise some websites over others if they have been paid for express delivery, has been hotly contested and there is a possibility that these guidelines will settle a dispute that regulator Ofcom has resolutely distanced itself from.

Indeed, in the absence of any higher authority there is a danger that the BSG guidelines could be seen as de facto regulations on how ISPs can approach net neutrality and traffic shaping – largely because the BSG is, it claims, “the UK Government’s leading advisory group on broadband”. It’s even part funded by the Government.

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Broadband speed con – it’s all our fault

Thursday, January 27th, 2011

Dear readers of PC Pro, we owe you an apology. For many a year now we’ve been banging on about the fantasy “up to” speeds advertised by Britain’s broadband providers, and all along you didn’t really give a monkeys.

Despite buying broadband-themed issues of the magazine in record numbers, and filling our comments sections with gripes about your pitiful connection speeds, you never really cared that the “up to 24Mbits/sec” line you were sold was denying you access to publicly funded services such as the iPlayer or ruining your business, did you?

At least that’s what our spine-free advertising watchdogs are claiming. The consultation document released by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) shows remarkable disdain for the broadband public; a grudging irritation that they’ve been forced to even consider this issue after years of outright advertising abuse by Britain’s ISPs.

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Why Lord Sugar needs to fire his “technical expert”

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

“I’m not interested in  any Steady Eddies or Cautious Carols,” barks Lord Sugar at the start of this week’s Apprentice – indeed, it’s Blundering Bordans that Amstrad Alan’s keen on.

The Bordan in question is Bordan Tkachuk, the CEO of computer firm Viglen, and one of the “trusted associates” dragged in to grill Sugar’s Apprentice candidates. Being the boss of a computer firm, Sugar naturally wants him to test out the technical acumen of Stuart Baggs – a hideous genetic blend of David Brent, Christopher Biggins and a cheap Burton’s suit.

Stuart “The Brand” Baggs runs his own ISP on the Isle of Man, and eagle-eyed Bordan’s spotted something iffy on his CV. Baggs claims he’s running a “fully licensed telecoms company”, but Bordan’s been on the blower to the Isle of Man authorities and found out that he only has a licence for broadband.

“Stuart you’re blagging to me,” said Tkachuk, cornering his prey. “I know what an ISP is. It’s an Internet Service Protocol.”

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Government’s broadband strategy: no new money, no new ideas

Monday, December 6th, 2010

So now we have it: the Government’s masterplan to make sure we have “the best broadband network in 2015”. What has Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt (at least, I think that’s his name – Radio 4 seems to have a different, ahem, pronunciation) come up with? Well, not a lot.

The headline figure is £830 million of Government money being ploughed into the project, up from the £530 million announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review a few weeks ago. Except closer inspection of the figures shows there’s no new money here, just some creative accounting.

The Government is stripping £150 million a year from the BBC’s licence fee pot to help fund next-gen broadband. Because the Comprehensive Spending Review only runs until 2015, the Government only accounted for two years’ worth of BBC contributions in its previously announced £530 million figure.  But because the Government’s broadband plan stretches to 2017, it can add another £300 million to the headline figure and make it look like new money, even if it’s just a rehash of previously announced plans. Cunning.

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