Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:01:03 +0700WeeblyMon, 09 Jun 2008 10:01:20 +0700http://it-services.weebly.com/1/post/2008/06/new-usage-allowances-for-bt-total-broadband-in-july.htmlThe recent switch from counting just download traffic to counting a sum of the download and upload traffic on BT Total Broadband products carried a small adjustment to allowances. The Fair Use Policy for the BT Total Broadband products reveals that further changes to allowances are due starting 1st July 2008.

Option 1 which has a standard monthly fee of £15.99 will see its usage allowance rise from 5GB to 10GB per month. Option 2 gets an extra 7GB taking its allowance up to 15GB for the £20.99 monthly fee. Option 3 remains as an unlimited product, but subject to fair use policy.

It should be pointed out that the fair use policy applies to all the BT Total products mentioned. The way the BT Total traffic management is thought to work means that even occasional peak-time users of applications such as peer to peer may see things slowing down. This is because we believe BT Total allocates allowances across its whole network for specific applications, and if a lot of people are using them, then this allowance gets split into ever smaller slices.

There is a downside to the increases in allowance, those who regularly exceed their Option 1 or 2 allowance will from 1st July be charged 60 pence per GB rather than the current 30p per GB.

With the average usage per broadband user creeping up as people start to consume more and more video and other services, seeing allowances increase is welcome. The big caveat is that an increase in allowance has to be managed carefully, e.g. backed up by adding extra capacity to the broadband network. Given the price reductions in costs from BT Wholesale that have occurred for the last couple of years, this seems feasible.

]]>Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:41:17 +0700http://it-services.weebly.com/1/post/2008/06/catch-up-tv-on-bt-vision-no-longer-free.htmlIt was probably good for some while it lasted, but BT Vision subscribers who have been able to view catch-up TV content for free via the IPTV service component of the BT Vision video on demand/Freeview hybrid service are now going to have to pay a monthly subscription fee.

BT Vision now has a TV Replay Pack that costs £3 per month and covers the 4oD and BBC iPlayer service. Technical issues are cited on DigitalSpy as for the reason why BT has made this move. We presume this is because viewing this material required a Quality of Service (QoS) session to be booked and paid for by BT Retail and as usage increased they were unwilling to subsidise this from the income that BT Vision normally generates.

BT Total customers are of course still able to view 4oD and BBC iPlayer material for free via other computing devices using their broadband connection. The lowest priced Option 1 product with its 5GB allowance will probably let you view 15-20 hours of BBC iPlayer streams over the course of a month dependant on what else you use your broadband connection for.

The BT Total usage allowances recently changed from being just download allowances to be a combined total for both upload and download usage, this means people using peer to peer services may need to carefully watch their upstream usage. One interesting issue to consider is that modern digital cameras can easily produce pictures that are 3MB or more in size. Uploading a couple of hundred photos to a backup or printing service could rapidly eat up a significant part of your allowance if you're not careful.

Sorce: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a97348/bbc-catch-up-goes-pay-on-bt-vision.html

]]>Mon, 02 Jun 2008 04:29:54 +0700http://it-services.weebly.com/1/post/2008/06/more-small-and-medium-sized-businesses-are-becoming-reliant-on-broadband-services-than-ever-before.htmlEasynet Connect, the new SME specialist division of ISP Easynet, have published findings of a survey they conducted in conjunction with Quocirca showing how small and medium sized businesses are becoming more reliant on broadband services over the last few years, but seem unwilling to switch providers when service standards drop. The report asserts that not only is Internet access becoming a critical part of the operations of a modern business, but SMEs are increasing their expectations of their suppliers.

The research shows that 1 in 7 businesses wouldn't be able to manage for more than a day without broadband, and 77% had faced service problems, but only 1 in 10 were considering switching broadband service providers, distinct to consumers who are far more likely to switch if there is a better deal on offer. Two thirds of those questioned confirmed their company had been with the same broadband provider for over five years and only about 10% were considering switching to another supplier. The problem is compounded by the jargon in the industry, making it difficult for non-IT staff to manage the purchasing decisions.

Rob Bamforth Principal Analyst at Quocirca said “As more and more businesses regard the internet as the backbone of their day-to-day processes, it is important that they understand that internet connectivity can and should be tailored to fit. Whilst speed and cost have become the buzzwords in the consumer space, businesses owners need to look beyond to added value and support, working closely with a provider that understands their specific needs, as opposed to one that takes a one-size-fits-all approach.”

Lack of understanding 

The report highlights a lack of understanding within the general business community about the technology and issues with many having a simplistic view of how Internet connectivity works. It suggests only a third of those asked understand the benefits of symmetric Vs asymmetric services and the benefits of faster upload speeds. Similarly, users tend to be focused on advertised speeds, not quality of service (although it was a recognized issue), contention of resources, etc.

Critical Infrastructure

In today's connected world, many companies are using the Internet for a key part of their operations from e-commerce, sales and marketing to general communications. The unavailability of even e-mail services alone can disrupt the modern efficient workforce which has learnt to rely on it, not to mention the impact on companies with VoIP platforms. The Quocirca research emphasizes this with the statistic that 22% of SMEs stated they couldn't cope without Internet access for more than an hour, rising to 71% when this was raised to 24 hours. The real question managers should ask is, are they taking this into consideration in their provisioning of IT services, risk assessments and contingency planning scenarios. With the increasing tightening of business models, is your broadband provider financially stable to stay in business for the next year?

Chris Stening Managing Director of Easynet Connect said “poor service levels and lack of support are currently being tolerated - this should not be the case. SMBs should be as demanding as consumers.”

If you run a small or medium sized business and haven't already asked yourself these questions, it's about time you did.

 The full report can be downloaded here.

]]>Sun, 18 May 2008 07:14:37 +0700http://it-services.weebly.com/1/post/2008/05/government-orders-data-retention-by-isps.htmlKeep it for 12 months for the plods...

Phone and internet companies will soon be forced to keep logs of internet usage to be made available to the police under a new law announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week.

The law, the Communications Data Bill, will implement the remainder of the European Union's Data Retention Directive.

Last October the Government enacted regulations which said that telcos must keep records of phone calls to and from land lines and mobile telephones. That requirement will be extended to records of customers' internet usage, email usage and voice over internet protocol (VoIP) records.

“The aim of the [Directive] is to ensure that certain data is retained to enable public authorities to undertake their lawful activities to investigate, detect and prosecute crime and to protect the public," said a Home Office spokeswoman.

“The first part of the [Directive] was transposed into UK law in October 2007 but the Government made a declaration … to postpone its application to the retention of communications data relating to internet access, internet telephony and internet email until 2009. So the measures referred to in the Communications Data Bill will complete the transposition of the Directive for IP [internet protocol] communications data," said the Home Office spokeswoman.

The Bill is likely to follow the lead of last year's Data Retention (EC Directive) Regulations in ordering providers to keep the data for 12 months.

Law enforcement agencies can gain access to such data with a court-ordered warrant. Though providers almost uniformly keep the information for such periods to resolve any future billing disputes, the laws will ensure that they do so.

The laws order the retention of who called whom, when and for how long but not the content of phone calls. The internet log retention orders will also mandate the keeping of information on a user's activity but not the content of any communications.

A telecoms business lobby group told OUT-LAW.COM at the passing of the Regulations last year that the orders would have little impact on the industry.

"The reality is that nothing much has changed. The new legislation will make little practical difference as most telecoms providers keep certain information for billing purposes and customer records," said Michael Eagle of the Federation of Communications Services. "That information would be enough to meet the requirements of law enforcement agencies. There is no need to keep more data that you are ever likely to be asked for."

The Home Office would not release details of the Bill and how it would work. A statement, though, said: "the purpose of the Bill is to allow communications data capabilities for the prevention and detection of crime and protection of national security to keep up with changing technology through providing for the collection and retention of such data".

"Unless the legislation is updated to reflect these changes, the ability of public authorities to carry out their crime prevention and public safety duties and to counter these threats will be undermined," it said.

The European Commission had put a deadline of 15 March 2009 for the transposition into law of the whole Directive.

Copyright © 2008, OUT-LAW.com By OUT-LAW.COM → More by this author
Published Friday 16th May 2008 09:10 GMT
OUT-LAW.COM is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons.

]]>Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:33:27 +0700http://it-services.weebly.com/1/post/2008/04/bt-wholesale-changes-mind-on-wbc-speeds.htmlJournalists were invited to the lair of BT Wholesale close to Gatwick Airport a few weeks ago for a briefing on the ADSL2+ product Wholesale Broadband Connect that is due to launch on a limited number of exchanges in the next few weeks.

PC Pro journalist Barry Collins who was at the briefing noted at the time that BT Wholesale estimated that some 50% of lines would connect at 12Mbps or better. It seems now that someone in BT Wholesale has gone back over the data from the lab tests and trials and issued revised estimates.


"I can confirm that the figure which states that 50% of UK households can expect to achieve speeds of 6.3-9.3Mb/sec is the latest lab trial data.

However, it is very difficult to predict the actual speeds that customers will receive once WBC [BT Wholesale Broadband Connect] is rolled out on a nationwide scale. " BT Wholesale spokesperson on WBC speeds.

The actual estimates BT Wholesale are currently suggesting are:

We would expect 10% of lines to get at worst 12.1Mbps or more (and more typically 16.3Mbps or more) 25% of lines to get at worst 10.9Mbps or more (and more typically 14.7Mbps or more) 50% of lines to get at worst 6.3Mbps or more (and more typically 9.3Mbps or more) 75% of lines to get at worst 3.3Mbps or more (and more typically 5.0Mbps or more)
The estimates do not look that different to what we suggested back in 2006 for ADSL2+ which suggested some 42% of lines will run at 9.5Mbps or faster with ADSL2+. It should be pointed out that we are talking about connection speeds- the actual download speed from websites and speed testers will be less than these figures due to network protocol overheads, contention and general internet conditions. Hopefully, as was found with ADSL in the eight years it has been live in the UK, in many cases it will out perform expectations. For example, during the original roll-out, ADSL was only available on telephone lines shorter than 3.5km.

Let us hope that broadband providers take on board what is happening with regards to public/press reaction to the current 'up to 8Mbps' advertising and not market ADSL2+ with phrases like 'broadband speeds double or treble what you have now'. Of course, the LLU operators have been selling ADSL2+ for a while and some use 16Mbps as the ceiling for 'up to' descriptions. They also generally provide guidance to people on what speeds can be expected when ordering the service. Where a lot of the problems possibly stem from in the ADSL world is bulk upgrades when people just got sent a generic marketing-speak email promising a big speed improvement for no price rise or a small upgrade fee.

]]>Wed, 16 Apr 2008 16:31:11 +0700http://it-services.weebly.com/1/post/2008/04/homepna-still-alive-and-kickin.htmlThe HomePNA Alliance wants us to know that it is still in the fight as an alternative (to Ethernet) networking technology. It today announced HomePNA 3.1 certification of nine new products and the first 320 Mbps chipset reference design from CopperGate.

The newly-certified products include VDSL2 and ADSL2+ residential gateways, Ethernet to coax bridges and a set top box. Companies included 2Wire, D-Link, SMC, SendTek and Scientific Atlanta.

]]>Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:30:36 +0700http://it-services.weebly.com/1/post/2008/03/kicking-off-2008-microsoft-style.htmlLast week, Microsoft kicked off the 2008 Launch Wave with more than 200 events worldwide celebrating the launch of Windows Server 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, and Microsoft SQL Server 2008. If you missed the Heroes Happen Here launch in Los Angeles on February 27, you can still experience the L.A. launch for yourself through the Microsoft Virtual Launch Experience. Watch Steve Ballmer's keynote and more than 20 technical sessions or browse more than 45 sponsored Microsoft and community "booths" -- all on-demand. Created with Microsoft Expression and Visual Studio 2008, and running on Windows Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008, the VLE is an immersive Microsoft Silverlight application that allows you to experience the launch on your own time, at the speed and in the way that works best for you.

And with the simultaneous worldwide launch, Microsoft also launched the Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 Web sites.

Try 'Em Out for a Chance to Win
When you Evalu'08 the three 2008 Launch Wave products, you could win a Windows Home Server. Download a free trial of any of the launch products or take a virtual lab and be entered for a chance to win great prizes. To sign up and for the official rules, visit Evalu'08.

Are you interested in what reviewers are saying about Windows Server 2008? Visit the Windows Server 2008 News and Reviews.

]]>Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:45:50 +0700http://it-services.weebly.com/1/post/2008/02/post-title-click-and-type-to-edit.htmlYou guy's have been asking for a public broadband installation support site, well here it is. Let me know what you would like added or improved on the site and I will do my upmost to deal with your requests as soon as phyiscally posible. You can interact with this website by using this blog page, replying to "blogs" left on the page, or by using the contact us page to send an email. This is a new site and it has been put up online to help you, the people installing BT Broadband products, so if you find something missing or wrong I would like to know about it. Remember this website is in the public internet realm so only public information can be placed on the site. Any information found to be not of a public nature will be removed. Phill.

]]>