Broadband News
Web enforcers IWF gain power to seek and destroy illegal content
Britain's largest ISPs have agreed to contribute a further £1m to the Internet Watch Foundation, following a meeting with Culture Secretary Maria Miller about child sex abuse images and videos found online.…
18 Jun 2013 | 3:49 pm
A careless Loon could blind the square kilometre array
Nearly the whole science and tech world is turning cartwheels at Google's “Project Loon”, Google's audacious “bring the Internet to the world using weather balloons” test that kicked off in New Zealand over the weekend.…
17 Jun 2013 | 6:57 am
Whitehall whispers of damning watchdog report next month
The UK government's ploughing of taxpayers' cash into deploying countryside broadband networks has been branded a "train crash waiting to happen".…
11 Jun 2013 | 2:29 pm
Home monitoring features added, too
Comcast, the US's largest broadband provider, has announced plans to expand its public Wi-Fi network by turning millions of customers' cable modems into open wireless hotspots, as well as providing new wireless home automation capabilities.…
10 Jun 2013 | 8:44 pm
$24bn ISP gobble completes
US cable giant Liberty Global has completed its takeover of Virgin Media in a $24bn (£15.5bn) cash deal.…
10 Jun 2013 | 11:28 am
Optional, yes - but will the default be off, or on?
Analysis TalkTalk - it would seem - has blazed an unlikely trail for Britain's big name ISPs by being the first telco to switch on network level filtering of web content. Now, after many months resisting the urge to apply such controls to their services, the other major providers - BSkyB, Virgin Media and BT - have all decided to follow suit.…
6 Jun 2013 | 10:28 am
Brits punished for downloading too much? Sounds more like 'limited', says ASA
Telco BE - now owned by BSkyB - has been admonished by Blighty's ad watchdog for misleading its customers with unsubstantiated claims about its broadband.…
5 Jun 2013 | 11:40 am
'You don't buy a carton of milk and only get 25 megs', snarls Brussels network czar
Brussels' vice president Neelie Kroes hopes to stop European ISPs from supposedly being anti-competitive by blocking or throttling rival services.…
4 Jun 2013 | 3:47 pm
Did Tony Abbott forget his own policy or re-write it on the fly?
The last possible imitation of sanity has abandoned Australia's National Broadband Network debate, with opposition leader Tony Abbott accused of abandoning his party's “DIY fibre” policy to save Australians from exposure to asbestos.…
4 Jun 2013 | 6:11 am
Telstra calls in PwC, government calls in Telstra, politics calls in NBN Co
Updated The rollout of the National Broadband Network has uncovered some nasty secrets: the use of asbestos cement in old Telstra pits, and the endemic dodginess of Australia's construction sector.…
3 Jun 2013 | 12:06 am
Mobe network pulls out of BT's Wi-Fi, goes it alone
O2 customers will be kicked off BT Openzone, the UK-wide public Wi-Fi network, from 1 July.…
30 May 2013 | 11:14 am
What? You don't agree? What are you, a terrorist?
Nick Clegg has been warned that his opposition to the controversial Communications Data Bill could leave Britain "at risk" after a soldier was beheaded in Woolwich, London.…
24 May 2013 | 11:08 am
I wanna be your backhaul man
The business end of Virgin Media has revealed more details about a £49m deal to beef up BSkyB's broadband network.…
23 May 2013 | 12:43 pm
Wants to sign up 500k UK homes by 2018
Hyperoptic - a relatively new player in the UK's ISP market - confirmed today that it had received a massive cash injection of £50m from investors to help the company expand its fibre-to-the-home business.…
23 May 2013 | 11:48 am
Exits Canberra FTTP market
In a bit of a game of pass-the-parcel, the fibre-to-the-home network assets that iiNet bought when it acquired TransACT Communications last year has been passed on to NBN Co for a minimum of $AU9 million.…
22 May 2013 | 11:57 pm
Sex ed must cover web smut, families tell heads
Schoolteachers should warn British children as young as five about the "dangers" of finding pornography online, say families.…
20 May 2013 | 12:24 pm
This is 'fundamentally better', insists Harding
TalkTalk has reported a slight fall in revenue and pre-tax profit for the full financial year.…
16 May 2013 | 10:59 am
Looking under the data, it's not so simple
There are, it seems, 44 countries in the world with better broadband download speeds than Australia, according to the latest Netindex release by Ookla.…
16 May 2013 | 12:04 am
1 in 3 polled punters will quit ISP gobbled by Sky
Boycotting Rupert Murdoch-owned stuff - such as the media baron's newspapers - is nothing new.…
15 May 2013 | 3:06 pm
May auction 500MHz to help 'em Instagram hideous dinner in real time
The US spectrum regulator wants to release 500MHz of radio spectrum for aircraft backhaul, creating cheaper connectivity for passengers taking their entertainment into their own hands.…
10 May 2013 | 1:34 pm
Oh, put it away
TalkTalk has been ordered to never brag again about its "best value" broadband, telly and phone package after BSkyB complained to the ads watchdog.…
8 May 2013 | 1:24 pm
Malcolm Turnbull's FTTN NBN plan now proven to be physically robust
Update Maclolm Turnbull will be smiling today. The communications spokesperson for Australia's opposition recently advanced a fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) plan for the nation's multi-billion National Broadband Network. That plan calls for tens of thousands of roadside cabinets to be constructed as the node to which fibre connects, before using copper for the final copper run to a user's premises.…
8 May 2013 | 3:53 am
NBN Co and Minister offer different descriptions of construction deadline
The timetable for rollout of Australia's national broadband network (NBN) has been updated. The nation's terminal-looking government, which faces an election on September 14th, has unveiled plans to provide an additional 1.3m premises with a fibre to the premises (FTTP) connection by December 2016.…
5 May 2013 | 3:51 am
Why Aye, lad!
BSkyB is looking to fill 550 job vacancies to meet what it described as "strong demand" for its TV and broadband services.…
2 May 2013 | 12:47 pm
Fight, fight: 'Very talented and lovely monopolist' vs 'copper Luddites'
Former jockey Dido Harding has convinced communications watchdog Ofcom to investigate BT, after the TalkTalk boss repeatedly complained about her rival's stranglehold on the fibre broadband market.…
2 May 2013 | 10:55 am
How Sky's about to BE the limit for O2 broadband
O2 has begun telling its home broadband customers that they will soon be shunted over to BSkyB's network.…
2 May 2013 | 7:03 am
Watchdog slaps ISP for Del Boy-like tactics
BT-owned ISP Plusnet misled would-be customers by boasting in a telly ad that its broadband service was available to "everyone", says a watchdog.…
1 May 2013 | 11:44 am
How you gonna call?
In the nearly three weeks since Australia's opposition parties released their policy for a faster-and-cheaper-to-implement national broadband network (NBN) reliant on VDSL to bring 50Mbps connections to most homes and businesses, oceans of digital ink have been spilled analysing the plan.…
27 Apr 2013 | 9:06 pm
Plus: 'I suspect some DDoS skid on his Mum's Windows box'
Quotw This was the week when Virgin Media was forced to grovel publicly after a deceased man's family posted the firm's demand for a £10 "late payment" when his direct debit was denied because of his death.…
26 Apr 2013 | 11:04 am
'Being deceased, it's probably slipped his mind' says son-in-law
Virgin Media has apologised after charging a dead man £10 for being unable to pay his broadband bill.…
25 Apr 2013 | 1:05 pm
$500,000 just to locate all the cable
Google's sweetheart deal to take over the city of Provo, Utah's loss-making fiber network will come with hidden costs, the city's mayor has revealed.…
25 Apr 2013 | 1:45 am
Bottomless thirst for downloads chokes the tubes
Akamai's State of the Internet report reveals a sharp slowdown in Australian Internet download speeds to the end of 2012.…
24 Apr 2013 | 12:24 am
Country Oz needs a fibre diet to suck nutrients out of wireless broadband
Vodafone has said it's hoping that the rollout of the National Broadband Network will give it the chance to improve country mobile services.…
23 Apr 2013 | 2:10 am
Fibre to reach 10m households by end of Parliament, she insists
Culture Secretary Maria Miller insisted during parliamentary questioning that the government's £680m Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) project will hit its target of bringing download speeds of at least 2Mbit/s to almost every Brit by 2015.…
22 Apr 2013 | 8:03 am
Why does the philosopher prince of broadband care about a half-a-percent saving?
Australia's broadband debate is beginning to take on elements of farce.…
21 Apr 2013 | 7:04 pm
Not a bad price for a $39m network build-out
Choosing the small city of Provo, Utah as the next location to receive Google's high-speed fiber internet service must have been a no-brainer, as the online giant will reportedly pay just $1 to set up shop in the area.…
19 Apr 2013 | 10:52 pm
Virgin Media has made adjustments to its broadband traffic shaping, which will apply to any customer on a 30Mbps or faster plan. The idea, according to Virgin, is to make these super-fast connections more “flexible” and “responsive.” Essentially, the company …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: Virgin Media rejigs traffic management policy
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17 Apr 2013 | 11:31 am
Vulture South goes mad with a spreadsheet, can't find billions in opex
Australia's opposition parties this week released their plan for broadband infrastructure. Many people have taken to the document with an eye to the Coalition's alleged $AUD90 billion-plus figure for the cost of the current National Broadband Network, but few have asked about the accuracy of the coalition plan's assumptions.…
14 Apr 2013 | 9:14 pm
Puncturing political promises with practicalities
Last Tuesday, Australia's coalition announced its alternative national broadband network (NBN) plan, offering fibre to the node as the dominant mode of delivery.…
11 Apr 2013 | 12:45 am
Lately, we’ve been hearing quite regularly about the expansion of EE’s 4G LTE network, but now the company has declared it’s focusing on quality and not just quantity. EE – its 4G service is now available in 50 towns and …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: EE doubles up 4G speeds
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10 Apr 2013 | 8:15 am
Big Phone horns in on Googly gigabit internet announcement
Google has officially announced what had already become an open secret: that Austin, Texas, will be its next "Google Fiber" city, where the online ad peddler will offer gigabit internet connections to homes and institutions. Soon after Google's announcement, AT&T chimed in with a copycat communiqué – albeit one with caveats.…
10 Apr 2013 | 12:14 am
Fibre to the premises unlikely for most in cheaper, sooner, plan
In Sydney's Fox Sports broadcast facility, a building supporting multi-gigabit connectivity, immediately following a demonstration of 3D television capabilities, and on the same day that the Australian Bureau of Statistics announced year-on-year Australian download growth of more than 63 percent, Australia's opposition announced a 25 Mbps fibre-to-the-node policy that will likely become the future for Australian telecommunications.…
9 Apr 2013 | 5:03 am
Turnbull as fiscal conservatism beats Turnbull as philosopher prince
Australia's shadow communications Malcolm Turnbull releases an alternative plan for the nation's national broadband network (NBN) today, an important moment in the network's evolution given the coalition Turnbull represents is likely to win government in September.…
9 Apr 2013 | 12:03 am
Even though most of telecom giant's new fibre network is mainly FTTC
BT boss Ian Livingston has blasted TalkTalk for grumbling about the cost of fitting fibre-optic broadband - and accused the budget ISP of clinging to its copper network.…
8 Apr 2013 | 1:43 pm
Historical prices for HFC access suggest NSW Government overcharging massively
According to the NSW State Government, NBN Co is being completely unreasonable in declining to fork over in the order of $400 million for access to electricity poles in that state. In response, NBN Co is, as it warned it would in October 2012, invoking the Telecommunications Act and using the poles without electricity authority permission.…
4 Apr 2013 | 12:52 am
No cloud movies for you if you lose the postcode lottery
Living in a city centre is no guarantee of nimble broadband speeds in Blighty, as download rates are a postcode lottery.…
28 Mar 2013 | 3:04 pm
Outstrips all competitors in race to the bottom. Again
Orange is once again the most whinged about telco in the UK, the communications watchdog Ofcom confirmed today.…
28 Mar 2013 | 11:59 am
Virgin choking wasn't moderate, so its wrist is smacked
Britain's advertising regulator has upheld complaints brought against Virgin Media by BSkyB and BT over the cable company's "unlimited" broadband claims.…
28 Mar 2013 | 8:28 am
Want some welfare payouts? Buy a computer
The National Audit Office has warned that the British government's fixation with its digital-by-default agenda could create a "them and us" mentality that excludes more vulnerable members of society who don't access the internet.…
28 Mar 2013 | 6:25 am
Six foot high boxes-o-infrastructure crush opposition
BT has convinced residents of Kensington and Chelsea that they can live with "ugly" fibre optic cabling cabinets on their streets. The move comes after the Royal Borough rejected 96 of the installation proposals submitted by the national telco in May last year.…
27 Mar 2013 | 12:26 pm
Kim Jong-un giveth and then he taketh away...
Portly peoples' hero dictator Kim Jong-un has put the brakes on North Korea’s efforts to haul itself into the 21st century after appearing to ban mobile internet services for tourists less than a month after a historic decision was taken to relax 3G data restrictions.…
27 Mar 2013 | 5:02 am
BDUK? BTUK, more like. And no, it won't be here in 2015
BT is the only company still bidding for Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) government funds after Fujitsu officially walked away from the process last week: unsurprisingly the national telco has won another fibre contract.…
26 Mar 2013 | 1:58 pm
Netflix has released its latest ISP Speed Index, and declared Virgin Media to be the fastest provider in the UK at the moment. In the figures for February 2013, Virgin Media managed an average of 2.37Mbps when it came to …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: Netflix declares Virgin Media fastest ISP
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12 Mar 2013 | 11:56 am
EE, currently the only network to offer a 4G LTE service in the UK, has announced the expansion of its coverage, with nine towns and cities being added. Those places are: Barnsley, Chorley, Coventry, Newport, Preston, Rotherham, Telford, Walsall and …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: EE brings 4G LTE to 9 more cities
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27 Feb 2013 | 3:12 pm
BT has come forward with details of its next batch of exchanges to get upgraded to fibre, 99 of them in fact. Quite why BT couldn’t push that number to a round 100, we’re not sure, but at any rate …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: BT announces more fibre exchanges
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13 Feb 2013 | 10:55 pm
BT has introduced a new tariff for unlimited broadband, which brings the cost for unlimited data down on both ADSL and fibre plans. The new scheme, called Totally Unlimited Broadband, starts at £16 per month for unlimited ADSL (copper) broadband. …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: BT introduces cheaper unlimited broadband
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1 Feb 2013 | 7:06 pm
Ofcom has opened up a consultation to address the issue of how consumers can be protected from a mid-contract price increase. When you buy a mobile phone, or sign up for a fixed term landline or broadband contract, the terms …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: Ofcom to address mid-contract price hikes
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3 Jan 2013 | 2:56 pm
Ofcom has compiled its latest report on broadband, landline and pay TV customer satisfaction for Q3 2012, and TalkTalk, usually the biggest offender, has improved again. TalkTalk is still the most complained about landline provider, however, with 0.39 complaints per …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: Ofcom: TalkTalk’s service improving
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19 Dec 2012 | 2:25 pm
EE has announced that its 4G service, currently the only one live in the UK, will expand to a further 17 towns and cities across the country by March of next year. That’s on top of the 18 cities which …
Continue reading →Originally posted here: EE announces 4G expansion plans
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14 Dec 2012 | 2:44 pm
Plus, why the Brits are nation of digital shopkeepers - and digital hoarders...
(silicon.com - Networks)
23 Mar 2012 | 4:15 pm
Smartphone and tablets putting pressure on networks
(silicon.com - Networks)
22 Mar 2012 | 10:40 am
News in brief: One in ten neighbourhoods gets speeds of below 3MBps
(silicon.com - Networks)
24 Feb 2012 | 5:24 pm
Not soap - something that could undermine the fundamental interconnectedness of the internet...
(silicon.com - Networks)
20 Jan 2012 | 3:43 pm
Viewers discovering new ways of watching the box...
(silicon.com - Networks)
16 Jan 2012 | 4:40 pm
