 |  | By Neil Hawkins Staff Writer Friday, 07 March 2008 |
THINGS are looking good this week as Ofcom tackles unfair charges and AOL introduces no commitment broadband. Meanwhile Be* is expanding and the perils of mobile data charging becomes horribly apparent for one poor fellow.
Ofcom in latest battle for broadband users
THE end of last week saw Ofcom launch a proposal for a new set of rules governing the mind-numbingly titled ‘Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations’.
The idea is to protect broadband users from the murky world of ‘hidden’ and ‘unfair’ charges which, in the understatement of the century, Ofcom says “may be unclear”.
The two main issues revolve around surcharges; those regarding not paying broadband providers via direct debit and those related to contract termination.
If Ofcom’s new guidance is adopted then broadband providers will have to make charges for non-direct debit payments more obvious.
Another interesting point raised by Ofcom is that the consumer should never have to pay more than the direct cost to the supplier for early termination and certainly no more than the remaining contract period.
Hopefully in the long run this will all lead to the broadband market being a more helpful place where broadband users can switch provider more easily.
The proposal can be seen in more detail on the Ofcom website and anyone can respond to the guidance before 8th May.
AOL rips up lengthy contracts
AOL has defied belief and launched a new broadband package which unlike all its other broadband deals has no minimum contract period.
The tongue-contorting AOL Broadband Wireless Flexi offers much the same as other AOL Wireless broadband deals.
For £14.99 a month (£19.99 if you live outside an AOL area) you get an up to 8Mb broadband connection, 10Gb bandwidth allowance, free wireless router and the option to take an AOL Talk phone package.
The main difference is that there is no tie-in period so if you really wanted to you could leave after a month!
There is a connection charge of £49.99 but at the moment this is roughly in line with charges levied by other broadband providers offering shorter contracts.
AOL broadband packages usually require a contract of 18 or 24 months so it is refreshing to see that one of the ‘big’ broadband providers is joining the likes of PlusNet and Be* Broadband who also offer short contracts.
Be*, O2 looking to invade exchanges near you
IF you’ve been waiting over a week for a 500Mb download to finish, do not fear, as salvation could soon be on its way.
Be* Broadband and sister broadband provider O2 Broadband have announced that the capacity of the Be* Broadband network they use will be substantially increased in size by June 2008.
In less than six months they hope to have enabled an extra 400 exchanges bringing their ‘up to 24Mb’ coverage to around 67% of broadband users.
This increase in capacity comes at a time when O2 Broadband is earning numerous plaudits and will soon be launching a national marketing campaign.
BT is also upgrading much of its network to be able to handle ADSL2+ (24Mb) traffic this year.
If Be* finish their upgrade by June though, they may well nick all the customers first.
Woman downloads Friends, marriage becomes shaky
MOBILE broadband is on the up. The recent aggressive marketing push by T-Mobile and other networks, has led to USB modems flying off the shelves.
The press stories have followed, with many an amusing pun on the term ‘dongle’.
But it seems that every week there is a story of how someone, somewhere in this crazy world has downloaded so much data that they’ve accumulated a bill which would make a Russian oligarch squirm.
This week has been no different and we couldn’t help but chuckle at a story which seemed to suggest that you should never let your USB dongle leave the country.
In a nutshell, a man with a Vodafone Mobile Broadband dongle was rushed to A&E and had open-wallet surgery in an attempt to extract £11,000.
Turns out his wife had started downloading four episodes of Friends in the UK via her husband’s Vodafone mobile but he went to Germany where they continued to download at the cost of £4.20 per MB.
There is a lesson here somewhere.
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