Broadband Weekly News Roundup (20 Dec 07)

By Neil Hawkins Staff Writer Thursday, 20 December 2007

OUR weekly round-up of UK broadband news and developments in the UK broadband market.

Featured Broadband Providers This Week Compare the broadband packages of: O2 Broadband Packages Virgin Media Broadband Packages Tiscali Broadband Packages Related Broadbands News See our other recent related news stories: Is O2 Broadband Any Good Is O2 broadband any good? We dig the dirt on the new O2 broadband service and discover what O2 customers are saying about their super-fast new service. Which is Better: Sky or Virgin Media? A well publicised battle has broken out between the two big dogs of the bundle world, Sky and Virgin Media. All very exciting, but of little relevance to the consumer, who is primarily concerned with getting the best bundle for their bucks. So, who truly can boast the best bundle? Official: Tiscali offers best customer service Not content with offering the cheapest broadband in the UK, Tiscali has now been voted best for customer service too. Is Tiscali Any Good? If you're thinking of taking out the cheapest UK broadband package from Tiscali, you're probably wondering if Tiscali is again good? Julia Kukiewicz unravels the answer. Tiscali Rolls Out Digital TV Bundle Package Tiscali are aiming their new digital TV bundle at viewers who aren’t satisfied with the basic free digital channels available via Freeview, but who do not want to pay the top end prices for a full satellite or cable package.

O2 Broadband To Offer TV Via Broadband

THIS week reports suggest that O2 Broadband is looking to throw its hat into the ‘Internet protocol TV (IPTV)’ ring joining rivals BT, Virgin Media, Sky and Tiscali, all of whom already offer digital TV-on-demand with your broadband connection.

Reports suggest that O2 wants to begin trialing the service in early 2008 and delivery via O2’s ultra-speedy 24mbps network infrastructure should be relatively painless for most users.

There are currently no concrete deals with distributors for on-demand content in the UK but O2 runs a similar service in the Czech Republic which offers 55 TV channels and additional video-on-demand content from Warner Bros, Sony Pictures, Disney, Paramount and HBO.

Meanwhile Orange Broadband’s trial of IPTV in Leeds and London won’t expand until next year at the earliest because, according to The Daily Telegraph, their network is not fully developed to cope with a larg expansion of the service.

Orange would use the same delivery method as BT Vision, Freeview TV via a set-top box and on-demand content via your broadband connection.

BT are said to have hit 100,000 subscribers for BT Vision but Tiscali have lost around 10,000 subscribers from its peak of 45,000 for their TV service.

Virgin Media Gets Serious About Traffic Management

VIRGIN Media’s cable broadband customers may notice a change in their service over the New Year. Virgin’s much maligned traffic management policy has been adjusted so that it only affects 3% of users rather than 5%.

The monitoring time has been reduced by three hours (currently 4pm-12am will be 4pm-9pm) but data uploaded will now be counted alongside data downloaded.

It will be interesting to see how the launch of the BBC’s new on-demand service BBC iPlayer affects users connection speeds, as many people are unaware of the amount of data transferred when using on-demand video applications.

Virgin Media insists that it’s all in aid of the greater good; they say that 97% of their users see an improved service when the 3% of heavy downloaders are throttled.

Tiscali top JD Power Survey of Broadband Suppliers

TISCALI, Virgin Media and Sky have topped the 2007 JD Power survey of broadband suppliers.

JD Power compare broadband services supplied by a range of UK ISPs by asking 1,683 UK broadband customers for their views on factors such as performance and reliabiltiy, cusotmer service and cost. The top three are Tiscali, Virgin Media and Sky, who all incidentally offer TV via broadband.

It must be said thought that this survey only compares eight of the UK's suppliers so should be taken with a pinch of salt. There is lots of choice out there folks! Take a look at ChooseISP's broadband comparison pages to see the variety!

Cheap Broadband on Unbundled Exchanges Expands

A reports published by the Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator (OFTA) has said the there are now 3.552 million undundled lines in the UK.

It also forecasted that there will be a strong demand for more in the near future.

Unbundled lines involve a company putting its own equipment into BT exchanges, enabling them to provide a cheaper, sometimes faster service. This has led to the growth of package deals where providers offer telephone and broadband in one montly payment.

The report also highlighted that migrations are causing the biggest problems amongst suppliers and it is looking for a marked improvement in this area.

Frustrated customers looking to switch companies want a simpler system and OFTA agrees.

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