Broadband Weekly News Roundup (1st Feb 08)

By Neil Hawkins Staff Writer Friday, 01 February 2008

THIS week the big news has come from Virgin Media who announced two major upgrades to their network. Read on for more...

Featured Broadband Providers This Week Compare the broadband packages of: Compare broadband packages from Virgin Media Compare broadband packages from Tiscali Compare broadband packages from Plusnet Related Broadbands News See our other recent related news stories: Virgin Media slashes cost of broadband to £4.50 VIRGIN Media continues to blaze a trail of cheapest UK broadband with their £4.50 broadband package, which has just had its end date extended by 2 months. Tiscali hits out at on demand TV services IN a dramatic example of the pot calling the kettle black, broadband bundle provider Tiscali has hit out at on demand TV services despite offering its own TV-over-broadband service. Broadband News Roundup (25 Jan 08) A sideways look back at the broadband news of the week, featuring: the nominees for this years ISPAs, free laptops help Carphone Warehouse and broadband via the sewers! Broadband News Roundup (18 Jan 08) OUR weekly broadband news roundup, featuring: Tiscali drops line rental fees, BT installs fastest UK broadband in Kent, Broadband user numbers are up - but so are complaints!

Virgin hail 50Mb trial a success

WE'VE been hearing about the trials of Virgin Media's 50Mb service since the end of last year but this week the bearded-wonders announced that soon 9m broadband customers would be in reach of these speeds.

The current expected completion date of the rollout is a vague 'end of 2008' at the moment.

There are currently no prices being given for this service and it would be a fool who'd try and guess but I reckon around £40-50 per month.

Virgin Media where Large means LARGE

MORE importantly, Virgin Media also announced that all of its Broadband L customers who currently get a 4Mb service will be upgraded to 10Mb absolutely free, yes that's right, gratis.

Virgin Media really are throwing down the gauntlet to ADSL providers and parading the strengths of a fibre-based network.

With this 10Mb package out-performing most 8Mb, sorry, 'up to' 8Mb packages the bonuses of living in a cabled area are coming to light.

The upgrade is being completed region by region and will be done by 'late summer'.

Neil Berkett acting CEO said, 'We've barely scratched the surface of what's possible with our cable network.'

Of course, this leaves you wondering what they've been doing with it all this time. On the plus side it also shows us the potential too!

Online TV is slowing the Internet says Tiscali

TISCALI is never one to keep itself out of the headlines and has been the most vociferous broadband in speaking out about who should foot the bill for the increase in bandwidth use by on-demand services such as 4oD and BBC iPlayer.

A Tiscali spokeswoman commented to silicon.com, 'If the content providers don't come to the table on this, the cost will be solely on the end user. It is an issue and we want to talk about it.'

However it looks like they might be the only ones who are complaining.

BT says it has no noticable issues with on-demand services like iPlayer and the same story is coming from Virgin Media.

With no other providers supporting Tiscali, making it look a bit like a case of ‘it’s my internet and I’m going home’, and considering they themselves have their own Internet TV service, it’s hard to see exactly where they’re coming from.

Ofcom hasn't ruled out opening a dialogue on this issue but for now it seems that Tiscali will have to keep on debating with itself.

Best Consumer ISP nominations announced

LAST week we summarised the finalists for the ISPA 2008 awards but the nominations for Best Consumer ISP had not been announced.

Well now they have and they consist of five well known names (BT, Orange, PlusNet, Tiscali and Virgin Media) and one slightly less well known ISP, Vispa.

Many people would be surprised to see Tiscali and Orange there after a year which has seen many complaints about both providers. Hopefully it is a sign of how they’re turning things round.

Entrants for this best broadband beauty contest are judged on everything you could imagine from broadband speed and reliability to corporate social responsibility credentials and time from order to delivery. Surely only a fool would try and predict the winner.

I think it’ll be Virgin Media or PlusNet.

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