Orange in mobile broadband promotion

Tuesday 19 August 2008 13:53:23 by Andrew Ferguson

The number of people using mobile broadband dongles for internet access when out and about and at home is on the increase. Orange is trying to improve its customer numbers by launching a mobile broadband with laptop bundle for £25 a month.

The mobile broadband is supplied via a USB dongle and comes with 3GB of data allowance, plus 100 free texts. The charges for going over the allowance are high compared to ADSL services at 1.46 pence per MB (£15 per GB). If abroad every MB used is charged at £3 per MB in Europe and £6.46 per MB elsewhere. The laptop is an Asus Eee PC 900 with Windows XP and 16GB of solid state storage, weighing just 0.99kg. Orange value the laptop at £299.

The 24 month contract is lengthy, and while people may find that their Internet access easily fits in the 3GB a month currently, if switching from dial-up the tendency is for people to consume more audio and video eating into the allowance quickly. With the same mobile deal from Orange available for £15 a month, then under this new deal you are effectively paying £240 for the laptop, and a little bit of looking reveals other Eee computers with varying specifications from £160 to £300.

At this time we are aware of only one mobile broadband provider that does not charge extra if you go over the bundled data allowance, and that is T-Mobile who instead restrict usage once over the limit. If mobile broadband is to succeed and not be a flash in the pan, the various providers need to address the massive costs of going over the bundled data allowance, and make it very clear when using the device abroad what the costs of access are. At £3 per MB, just checking your email a couple of times while on holiday could easily set you back £10 to £20.

Future uncertain for Be Home Monitor Service

Friday 15 August 2008 19:14:32 by Andrew Ferguson

The Be Home Monitor service which was based around a wireless IP Network Camera and a small key fob that you could use to arm the system looks set to go through a bumpy patch. Subscribers to the £5 a month service should have received the following letter by now:

"Dear Be member,

We hope that you have been enjoying your Be Home Monitor and the great benefits that the product and service have provided. Unfortunately, we need to inform you that this service is going to be withdrawn. The Be Home Monitor Service will end on 18th September 2008. This is when the contract with our partner who provides the service comes to an end.

We are looking into several options as alternatives and we will come back to you via email on the 20th August 2008 with an update.

Best wishes,

The Be Team "

Letter from Be Team

It looks like the contract for the running of the service is up for renegotiation and that things may not have gone too well. Hopefully further information will be available by 20th August.

Most IP network cameras can run without the need for any external service by having a small web server built into them. If the camera on the Be service has this ability then all is not lost, and many models allow you to programme email alerts into the camera directly. Where people will stand legally with respect to Be ceasing the service less than a year after starting, particularly in view of the £150 cost of the camera remains to be seen, fingers crossed an alternative solution that can use the current hardware will emerge.

Interestingly another service that made use of SMS messaging is closing down, and that is SMS alerts from Twitter. So it may be the cost of the 100 SMS and 10 MMS messages added to the other costs of the Home Monitor Service make it unattractive to the company running this side of things.

Update Tuesday 19th August: Be has issued a short update prior to the full update for members due on 20th August.

"Hi there,

We just wanted to let you know more about the withdrawal of the Be Home Monitor service.

Unfortunately, the contract with our supplier has ended and we are now looking into alternatives and the best possible next steps for the service.

We are working to get as much information as possible together on the next steps for all of our members that use the Home Monitor service. We will be able to provide you with a further update on the situation on Wednesday 20 August after we have communicated with members.

In the meantime, if you have any queries, please contact Ben Matthews (Hotwire PR – Be’s PR agency) at Ben.Matthews@hotwirepr.com.

We will continue to provide a premium broadband experience to our members, as this core service will not be affected by this issue.

Many thanks for your understanding in this matter and we will resolve any issues as soon as possible.

Best Wishes,

The Be Team"

Statement from Be on Home Monitor Service

What broadband speeds could the UK copper loop manage?

Friday 15 August 2008 12:47:18 by Andrew Ferguson

In an ideal world replacement of the copper local loop would happen in the next couple of years, but even the recent £1.5bn programme from BT suggests that the copper local loop is to largely remain. Ofcom has published a paper titled 'Assessment of the theoretical limits of copper in the last mile' which gives some idea of what is in theory possible over the existing infrastructure.

While the limits are theoretical, the paper does provide useful information on why a cabinet led deployment of VDSL and faster variants of DSL such as VDSL2 would improve speeds for more people than sticking to the current exchange led upgrades. The assessment is UK based, and takes into consideration areas like crosstalk, power levels to arrive at reasonably sensible figures that we may see broadband speeds approaching in the future.

Click image for full size version

The above chart shows what is hopefully common knowledge, that ADSL and ADSL2+ only supply their best speeds to a small proportion of telephone lines. If UK copper loop based broadband stays stuck in the exchange, then improvements in technology will only benefit a limited number of lines.

Click image for full size version

By moving the DSL hardware into the street cabinet, then the results are very different, in theory around 80% of lines then have a theoretical maximum of some 250Mbps. The graph also shows the speeds VDSL is expected to achieve, hopefully VDSL2 will supercede VDSL before it is rolled out, which for shorter lines (0.5km) may reach speeds of 100Mbps.

The basic distribution of line lengths across the over 20 million telephone lines is the UK suggests that 18% of telephone lines are under 2km long, 43% under 3km, an unlucky 6% have a line longer than 5.5km. The situation if you look at the length of the telephone from the property to the street cabinet (known as the D side) is very different, only around 12% of lines are longer than 1km, with something like just 0.1% or 0.2% longer than 3km.

So has the copper local loop reached the end of its lifespan? Not quite, but it is getting close, Fibre to the cabinet architectures will benefit broadband speeds greatly. This data will help communications providers to judge whether the life span of cabinet based broadband is worth the investment, or should a full fibre to the home architecture be used?

In some areas such as Bournemouth and Dundee within a year or two the copper local loop may start to see a decrease in usage as people switch to fibre based connections. For blocks of flats, the Metro-Ethernet deployments employed by Ask4 could start to prove popular. Metro-Ethernet involves running a fibre to the basement of a block of flats, and using Ethernet to distribute it around the building. Then of course there is cable broadband which has the ability to run at 200Mbps or maybe even 400Mbps using DOCSIS 3.0 in the future.

The one technology that is playing catch-up is the various mobile broadband technologies which are now starting to look at 14.4Mbps connections, but just like ADSL these suffer from signal strength issues, and while 3G coverage may claim to be 90% there is no indication of the actual connection speeds enjoyed in these areas.

Details of Virgin Media cable product leak out

Friday 15 August 2008 09:07:43 by Andrew Ferguson

It is impossible to know for sure whether the figures are what will apply to the product at launch, and with the product roll-out probably still some months away there is plenty of time for Virgin Media to change the figures.

So what has leaked out about the Virgin Media 50Mbps cable broadband package? Apparently it will have a 1.5Mbps upload speed, and the traffic management will only apply between the hours of 4pm to 9pm, with a trigger level of 6GB downloaded in the five hours. Those exceeding this limit will see their maximum speed reduced to 10Mbps for downloads and 0.5Mbps for upload traffic.

Update 11am Virgin Media has been in touch to point out that there is no traffic management on the 50Mbps tier for the trial connections, and no management levels have even been tested for product launch. So it seems the talk on forums is just that, idle chit chat and speculation.

"Virgin Media will be pioneering the UK's fastest broadband service with our 50Mb service due to roll-out from late 2008. As we're using brand new technology, twinned with significant core network upgrades, we've yet to determine if there will be traffic management on this service and if so, at what levels these might be."

Virgin Media spokesperson

If the product does launch with no traffic management and the price premium over the 20Mbps product is not too large then the Virgin Media will have a product that only faces competition from providers like Ask4 and the full fibre network of H2O networks. A few ADSL2+ providers using their own unbundled network operate with no real limits, but even when BT launches fibre products it is unlikely to have a free for all of the scale Virgin Media is promising with its 50Mbps product

A 50Mbps connection, if allowed to run flat out for a month would download 16000GB (16 TeraBytes), hard drive storage for this amount of data would cost over £1000, or fill 1700 double layer DVDs.

Playlouder could reemerge in deal with Virgin Media

Thursday 14 August 2008 15:52:40 by Andrew Ferguson

Some will of heard of the broadband provider Playlouder who offer a broadband service with bundled music downloads in the UK. The firm classifies itself as a Music Service Provider (MSP) and it is thought to be in talks with Virgin Media over a deal that would see music rights holders receiving payment for material downloaded over peer-to-peer (p2p) networks.

There is an explanation of how Playlouder envisages this working over on paidcontent.co.uk. The system works by using a combination of deep inspection technology and Audible Magic to allow people to download music from torrents and other P2P networks and even share it with other users while tracking which tracks have been downloaded. This doesn't come for free however, the idea being that the broadband provider can charge a fee for this unlimited access to music.

At first sight there is no incentive for people to pay extra for this subscription, but given the recent memorandum of understanding that will see warning letters getting sent out, the pressure will build on people to switch to legal music download sources. If the figure of £5 a month was to become reality then the chance of households signing up will be fairly high, and in the case of Virgin Media there may be scope for including the deal for free with the premium services such as the 20Mbps service.

The problem will be that as p2p networks evolve there is constant race between these clients and the deep inspection networks. There will be some who have become so used to getting all their digital content for free that no matter how cheap a subscription they will endeavour to employ encryption techniques to evade detection.

Broadband providers are likely to be striking a number of deals like this over the coming months, and if the amount of money flowing towards the record companies improves then bodies like the BPI may relax the pressure on the government to introduce more restrictive legislation. If full legislation is introduced we may see people getting blacklisted from having an internet connection after being caught downloading music illegally.

Fallacy of the anonymous Internet vanishing

Thursday 14 August 2008 15:45:53 by Andrew Ferguson

The Internet is a very powerful tool and this has not escaped the notice of people who wish to subvert the law. Some countries around the world have very strict controls, with massive Internet firewalls to ensure the public only sees what the government wants them to see. There is a common feeling that the UK is moving to a surveillance society, and with laws coming that will require communications providers to retain telephone and internet records and allow local councils and public bodies access to these the parallels with the old East Germany will be obvious to many.

A consultation period is running on the final phase of the Transposition of Directive 2006/24/EC which ends on 31st October 2008. The consultation period covers the areas of internet access, internet telephone service, and internet mail. At some 300 plus pages, the document is not easy going, but it is keen to point out that while the law would require retention of the fact an email went from Fred to John on 14th August 2008, the content of the email would not be recorded.

The report confirms that a number of communications providers already retain the necessary records as part of their normal business or under previous voluntary schemes. The concern of many will centre around areas like how RIPA has been used by local councils. The family in Dorset that was under surveillance for three weeks could with the new law expect the council to be trawling their email records for any communication with a school outside their catchment area.

The consultation paper talks about retention of internet connection info, e.g. where and when, internet telephony and e-mail, but does not mention other areas such as instant messaging. It is possible that due to the voice and video aspect of most instant messaging applications these will count as internet telephony. The successes under current retention policies are highlighted in the paper, but there is little talk of how false positives will be handled, and what abuse safe guards are in place. The aim of the regulations are "to ensure that this data is available for a minimum of 12 months to assist in the investigation, detection and prosecution of serious crime".

There will be concerns about those with access to these powers abusing them. One could see a local councillor perhaps abusing the powers to spy on political opponents. Most people will accept that investigations into serious crimes such as child abuse and kidnaps will benefit from the obligation to retain internet communications data but public confidence in such measures for local authorities is unlikely to be strong.

Ofcom report indicates changes in broadband market

Thursday 14 August 2008 09:45:35 by Sebastien Lahtinen

Ofcom has this morning published its UK Communications Market Review 2008 report.

The report shows that whilst availability of DSL and cable broadband as a whole has remained fairly static from 2006 to 2007, 3G mobile broadband has increased in coverage from 70% to 90% (based on the proportion of the population living in postal districts where at least one of the mobile phone companies reports at least 75% 3G coverage). It also shows that availability of LLU has increased from 67% to 80% of households connected to an LLU-enabled exchange. Almost half of the LLU enabled exchanges had more than three providers offering services indicating that LLU rollout is primarily in the more populated exchanges and showing the need for the core services to be offered by BT in the more rural ones at the wholesale level.

According to Ofcom the average blended headline speed increased from 3.6 Mbps at the end of 2006 to 5.9Mbps at the end of March 2008. It is however somewhat questionable how much of this is reflected in true speeds received by end users. Previous information we have published gave an average throughput speed for the UK of 3238Kbps from over 6000 locations around the UK in June 2008. Once the overheads inherent in ADSL communication are accounted for this translates to a headline speed of around 3.7Mbps. Also, the proportion of homes taking broadband services increased from 52 to 58% by Q1/08. This is a slow-down in growth with previous years' growth being around 10%. LLU services however are still in stronger growth phases.

The report in general reports a slow-down in new fixed broadband users as the market is reaching closer to saturation, explaining the decision by many broadband service providers to switch marketing tactics from attracting new broadband users to targeting 'switchers' currently receiving service from competing providers. This means competition will be as fierce as ever. Also, the emergence of mobile broadband in 2008 is presenting a significant risk to the fixed broadband providers with 75% of those with access to mobile broadband using it at home. This option is particularly useful to those with very limited broadband requirements, especially if they travel a lot or use their broadband service from more than one location. We are confident however that over time, fixed broadband services will not as a whole be disadvantaged as the bandwidth requirements rise with increasing adoption of bandwidth-hungry services such as BBC's iPlayer, etc.

Bundling of services has remained at the 40% level since 2006 although Ofcom suggests more complex bundles are becoming increasingly popular with triple-play (telephone, broadband and television services) taking over from smaller 'double-play' bundles of telephone/broadband services.

These figures will be of concern to the small and medium sized providers as the trend towards bundling of communications and entertainment services is driving consumers toward more complex series of packages from larger operators able to deliver triple and quad play services, pushing smaller operators further into the niche markets.

Broadband and phone bundles cheaper than broadband alone

Tuesday 12 August 2008 13:02:54 by Andrew Ferguson

Bundling of broadband with other services such as telephone, VoIP and IPTV packages has been a large growth area in the UK broadband market since 2006. Point Topic has taken a look at the average pricing for products around the world, and shows that while adding a telephone or VoIP deal to a broadband service can lower the headline monthly fee, adding IPTV can increase the amount you pay.

There are a number of reasons communication providers are keen to get us all signed up to bundles, particularly telephone services, as the calls we make over the telephone line add to the revenue thus increasing their profit margins. Also with multiple service contracts, people are much less likely to switch to another provider as comparing bundles is still difficult. In the case of telephone bundles factors like call set-up charges and the rates for landline to mobile calls can vary greatly and make comparisons a complex process. One thing to be aware of is that if you are ever offered a good deal or bundle by your existing provider, that this will often mean you are entering in a new 12 month (or longer) contract.

The fact that IPTV services generally add to the package price are probably down to the the need to have a broadband network dimensioned to handle people making widespread use of TV over broadband, as well as the cost of signing content deals with the various movie studios and content providers.

TV catch-up services not the death of linear TV.

Tuesday 12 August 2008 10:57:59 by Andrew Ferguson

The various TV over broadband services in the form of streaming and downloads offered by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five and Sky have gained a lot of headlines showing large take-up, however this appears to be incremental to the traditional broadcast services according to a report in The Guardian.

The TV marketing body Thinkbox (not affiliated with thinkbroadband) reports that UK viewers are watching 3.77 hours of broadcast TV a day so far this year, a 2% increase on the five year average. The amount of content watched online is in addition to this and is also growing. The fact that traditional broadcast viewing is not decreasing may reflect people trying to save money by simply staying at home, rather than going out.

The impact of the online offerings is important to broadcasters as many will hope to reclaim the costs of developing and running their online operation from advertising revenues. Given the recent prediction of a dip in advertising revenue by ITV, we may see some online operations scaling back.

The commercial joint venture named Project Kangaroo between BBC Worldwide (the commercial arm of the BBC), Channel 4 and ITV looks set to be delayed until 2009 due to the ongoing investigation by the Competition Commission into whether this venture represents a merger situation, and what the impact will be on other commercial ventures.

One reason many people may have taken a look at the current on-demand services and returned to their normal viewing habits is that many services provide poor quality pictures, particularly if viewed from a closer distance as would be typical on a computer monitor. Compared to Freeview some services provide a comparable picture, but this is not saying much as Freeview generally contains compression artefacts. Even digital satellite TV can fail to meet the picture quality of analogue TV at times. People are spending hundreds of pounds upgrading to HD televisions looking for the ultimate in quality, but the images currently being pumped into our homes, be it over broadband or digital broadcast, often fail to impress. Even HD streams are not immune to the 'blocky' nature of compression during fast action scenes.

For those buying movies online, a common trap is to label a 1.5GB movie as High Definition because of the resolution of the image. Even with modern encoding/decoding it will not match the quality of a DVD or Blu-ray film. Good HD content generally runs at 200MB for just 2 minutes of content, making a film download around 9GB. Downloading a single 9GB film would more than double the average monthly usage figure, so it shows the extent to which the complete UK broadband infrastructure from mobile broadband, through the various DSL variants to cable broadband, have some way to go to meet the hype of a all encompassing broadband media experience.

Users of MySpace get free access via Wi-Fi

Friday 08 August 2008 15:59:41 by Andrew Ferguson

The Cloud has a history of adding content that is accessible for free from its wireless hotspots including BBC Content in October 2007 and the Nokia music store in December 2007.

A partnership between MySpace.com and The Cloud will see MySpace users being able to access the site without the need for a hotspot subscription until October 2008. The partnership will see both parties promoting each other on their respective web pages.

"MySpace is renowned as one of the world’s leading social networking platforms, which makes it an ideal partner for us. The Cloud is delighted to be working with MySpace to provide many millions of its users free access to their music, video and friends over Cloud Wi-Fi."

Steve Nicholson, CEO, The Cloud