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Jun 25, 2009 Featured, Net Neutrality, Wholesale, iPlayer
The last month has seen substantial media coverage of the latest row that has erupted between BT Retail and a number of content providers including the BBC. However, we think a fundamental issue is being missed. Instead of BT Retail focusing attention on the BBC et al to contribute to its increasing costs, it should instead be tackling its wholesale provider to reduce the price of bandwidth. Here I explain why this has a wider significance to ISPs and the industry as a whole.
June 2009 proved to be a turbulent month for two of the UK’s industry giants, BT and the BBC. The month began with reports that BT was throttling its option 1 customers’ connections to the BBC’s iPlayer service (and other bandwidth hungry services including YouTube) during peak times, reducing speeds to less than 1Mbps on the advertised up to 8Mbps service. This, according to the BBC, notably affected the iPlayer’s service quality.
Neil Watson, Technical Support Manager
The argument escalated when the BBC claimed that BT’s advertising of its option 1 package shied away from detailing this level of throttling. Instead it states that the package is capable of 25 hours of iPlayer streaming and only refers to the throttling in its FUP.
By mid June the plot thickened with a request from BT for content providers to pay towards the cost of delivering customers to their sites, claiming that the “free ride for content providers was over”.
“We can’t give the content providers a completely free ride and continue to give customers the [service] they want at the price they expect,” said John Petter, managing director of BT Retail’s consumer business.
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Recent Entries
Jun 17, 2009 Copyright, Digital Divide, Featured, iPlayer
The Digital Britain final report has now been released by Lord Carter and outlines Government’s plans to introduce a new Universal Services Commitment (USC) ensuring 100% UK broadband coverage with speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2012. The existing USC which applies only to BT and Kcom will be replaced and the burden will be shared by the industry as a whole.
Darren Farnden, Marketing Manager
The long awaited report confirms the ongoing speculation of the 2Mbps USC and confirms that this will be achieved by a number of technologies including home wiring improvements, Fibre to the Cabinet (FTTC) and mobile and satellite solutions to reach the most remote areas. Over recent months there has been mounting speculation as to how this expected USC would be achieved and funded. Possibly the most shocking outcome of the report is the news that public funding will be used to find the most cost effective technology to bring 2Mbps broadband to the UK’s ‘not-spots’.
We’re pleased to see that Government recognises the importance of improving customer experience to all areas of the UK. However, if customers in more rural areas are to actually enjoy the same level of service as those in urban areas then achieving 2Mbps really must be viewed as the first stepping stone. Lord Carter clearly concurs with this view, stating his reasoning for the 2Mbps limit is based on “current consumer expectations, the growing importance of video and increasing multiple use in the home.” He continues “At 2Mbps, all homes should be able to fully benefit from the most basic range of applications, services and opportunities offered by broadband.”
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Jun 11, 2009 Entagroup
In April we publicised Entagroup’s sponsorship of Janet Poole as she embarked on a gruelling 10 day challenge across the route of the Great Wall in China. Trekking with 50 other walkers in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support, Janet faced some personal challenges including leaving behind her husband and four children and also a fear of heights. We caught up with her once she’d returned, eager to hear her experiences and congratulate her on her achievement.
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Jun 1, 2009 Featured, Privacy, Security
While the protection of children from inappropriate content when they are online has been a key focus for many for some time, bullying tactics increasingly used by pupils against their teachers online is leading to claims that ISP’s should be responsible for policing Internet use.
Darren Farnden, Marketing Manager
The recent announcement by the UK government that it is planning to crack down on online defamation is the result of mounting pressure from teachers about the growing tendency for children to use the Internet to attack them. This is undoubtedly a serious problem. We have heard of cases where students have set up facebook sites in their teachers’ names with the sole purpose of providing a platform for defamation of character and where pupils and even parents have discussed teachers in a derogatory nature online.
Such incidences show just how easy it is now for children to start using the Internet as a way of abusing teachers. A recent survey suggests as many as one in ten teachers have fallen victim to cyberbullying.
This of course is not just a problem in education – it is a massive issue in business as well. There have been many documented cases of email bullying and libellous statements being made via emails and IM. With the use of ‘social’ networking sites such as twitter also growing in business the prospect of individuals spreading inaccurate or malicious material about their competitors is very real.
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May 8, 2009 Featured, Privacy, Security
Many see the Internet Watch Foundation’s (IWF) block list as an important step in the fight against child exploitation online. The IWF block list is an extensive list of websites that contravene UK law many of which contain inappropriate images of children. The block list has been utilised by 95% of UK ISPs as a method of censoring offensive content from end users. The remaining 5% of UK ISPs are facing increasing pressure from the government and several charities to implement the list. So why haven’t they?
Neil Watson, Technical Support Manager
The remaining 5% is made up of primarily ISPs with smaller budgets. The high cost of the technology used to filter the offensive content therefore provides them with a moral dilemma. In addition their decision is complicated by concerns over the accuracy of the IWF list. Late last year a Wikipedia page was blocked due to an inappropriate image used on an album cover. This resulted in several users’ access to innocent Wikipedia pages being blocked.
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Apr 24, 2009 Entagroup
Entagroup has pledged financial support to a gruelling 10 day walk along the Great Wall of China in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Entagroup is sponsoring mother of four, Janet Poole, as she embarks on the challenge with approximately 50 other walkers. Commenting on the walk Janet said “My friends and I were looking for a challenging and worthwhile way to mark our 40th birthdays. We decided that supporting Macmillan Cancer Research, which has touched all of our lives, whilst achieving a lifelong goal of trekking the Great Wall of China was the perfect way to mark our own milestone.”
The team will hike for 8 hours on every day of the 10 day challenge across the route of the Great Wall, climbing its steep steps and passing the beautiful Yanshan mountains. The team will stay at camps along the route which they will need to erect themselves. “We have been training hard for the walk with twice weekly gym sessions and hikes every other day around our local area” added Janet.
The team leaves for China on Friday 24th April with £3200 already raised by Janet for Macmillan Cancer Support, which provides invaluable support to cancer patients and their families.
Anyone wishing to add their support to Janet’s challenge can do so at www.justgiving.com/janetpoole-china2009.
If you are interested in learning more about our charitable activities visit this page of our web site.
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Apr 22, 2009 Copyright, Featured, File Sharing, Privacy
If you haven’t heard about the Pirate Bay case then you must have been living in a box (or should that be treasure chest) for the last month or so as the story has been all over the industry news. But just in case you don’t know what happened, here is a quick recap.
Neil Watson, Technical Support Manager
On 17th April 2009 a Swedish court found the four founders of The Pirate Bay, a website that distributes links to files that can be downloaded and shared via P2P clients, guilty of assisting file sharing of copyrighted material. They were each sentenced to 1 year in jail and ordered to pay £2.4million in damages to the entertainment industry. However latest news reports have announced they plan to launch an appeal.
Unsurprisingly the verdict has received mixed emotions from the various parties affected. The entertainment industry has come out in force to support the ruling hailing it a triumph, whilst a large amount of pro-file sharing protestors hit the streets of Stockholm in outrage.
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Apr 1, 2009 Featured, Marketing
Those of you who read our recent article ‘Marketing Tips for Techies (Part 1)’ will already know how to produce marketing literature, write effective press releases, tackle updating your website and execute successful email marketing campaigns.
Darren Farnden, Marketing Manager
As promised in the last article, this time we will provide useful tips on Search Engine Marketing including Search Engine Optimisation and paid search marketing, Social Media Marketing and we will be giving you some advice on how to make the most of your resources. So let’s get started.
The world of ‘Search’
Search Engine Marketing (SEM), for those who understand how to use it, can be one of the most effective advertising platforms currently available.
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Mar 17, 2009 VoIP, Voice
ENUM (E.164 NUmber Mapping) is a technology that has been around for a little while that has promised much and, so far, delivered little to the average user. As Nominet has recently been awarded the contract to administer the UK 4.4.e164.arpa delegation I thought it was time that I put my thoughts on this subject down in writing.
Jon Farmer, Voice Technical Lead
I’m going to cover the potential of ENUM in the telecoms industry and what it could mean to you, along with how it is currently being used and what potential security issues surround ENUM.
Lets get started with a short primer. ENUM is a way of storing & supplying information about an entity using DNS like storage and retrieval. DNS is the technology that allows domain names to be used for things such as web site and email addresses. For now, consider ENUM to be a way to catalogue and retrieve potentially dynamic properties attached to a single ‘number’ or URL.
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Mar 12, 2009 Marketing
We’ve added a new poll asking through which media you would prefer your Reseller/ISP to communicate with you online. We’re interested to hear your input so please feel free to cast your vote irrespective of which ISP you use.
You can find the poll on the right of the screen and you can choose up to three answers.
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ISPs vs BBC iPlayer - Missing the point?
(9 votes, average: 3.67 out of 5)
tom.w on 
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