Easynet Global Services has completed its sale from BSkyB to private equity firm Lloyds Development Capital (LDC) for the agreed price of £100m (July 2010 news). Chief Executive Officer, David Rowe, who founded Easynet in 1994, will remain in the role with the full backing of LDC.


As reported before, Easynet retains the International network and Data Centre assets. In the UK, Easynet has entered into an exclusive and long term relationship with Sky for the use of Sky’s access network, but also retains the core IP infrastructure and network management functions responsible for routing traffic intelligently around customers’ networks.

Easynet therefore retains full control and ownership of the core network assets both within the UK and globally. In other words, Sky owns the roads, while Easynet retains exclusive access to the priority lanes.

An interesting video interview with David Rowe can be found here.
http://www.easynet.com/gb/en/video/?PrimaryNavID=14&videoID=85

Mobile-Broadband Network Limited (MBNL), a Joint Venture 3G / Mobile Broadband network sharing agreement between T-Mobile and Three (3) UK that first began at the end of 2007, looks set to be joined by Orange (France Telecom) before the week is out.

The move, which could cut costs and improve coverage for all three operators, would not be a surprise given T-Mobile and Orange's recent merger into Everything Everywhere. However it would make it harder for Orange to continue its claims about having the best 3G network coverage.

The ZDNet article informs that an official announcement is due to surface tomorrow, with Orange UK expected to contribute several thousand of its own masts to the Joint Venture. The new arrangement will continue a 50-50 split, albeit between Three (3) and 'Everything Everywhere'.

April 2010 saw network equipment manufacturer Nokia Siemens Networks sign a £400m contract with MBNL to help expand both the capacity and reach of each operators shared 3G network infrastructure. Orange will be pleased to get a piece of the action.

Cable giant Virgin Media has published the results of a new ICM survey, which was conducted with 1,000 UK adults during July 2010. The study found that 9 out of 10 consumers still find current broadband ISP advertising to be misleading. In response Virgin has pledged to publish the typical average speeds its customers receive each month across its 10Mb, 20Mb and 50Mb services.

The research identified broadband speeds as second only to price when choosing a broadband provider. But the vast majority of people (90%) find it difficult to compare different services because they can’t be sure of the speed they’ll actually receive.


There is a clear appetite for change, with 93% of respondents agreeing that the rules should be tightened to prevent ISPs making a speed claim unless it matches the typical "real world" experience of a clear majority of customers.

Survey Highlights

* Only 9% of people think advertised broadband speeds tend to be accurate

* Only 2% of people believe the approach of advertising “up to” speeds is the clearest or most helpful way to advertise broadband speeds

* 93% of people believe ISPs should only advertise the typical speed received by the majority of customers

* 94% of people believe broadband providers should advertise consistent information about broadband speeds – so they can reliably compare speeds

* The research highlighted widespread cynicism towards current broadband advertising – 54% of people are unsurprised when shown the difference between advertised and actual speeds

* 41% of people are willing to pay more if they can be sure of a faster broadband connection

Virgin's position is easy to understand, not least because it continues to come top of the pack in most consumer broadband speed tests. Ofcom also praised Virgin Media's up to 10Mb and up to 20Mb services for delivering average speeds more than twice as fast as its DSL ( up to 8Mb ADSL, 24Mb ADSL2+ ) competitors, with around 90% of the headline speed being delivered to Virgin Media customers.

It goes without saying that many of the larger DSL providers, such as BT , TalkTalk , Orange , O2 and Sky Broadband UK, would probably be less inclined towards adopting Virgin Media's solution because it would paint many of them as being significantly slower. However some smaller and faster DSL providers would probably jump at the chance to show their merits against the big boys.

It's important to point out that Virgin Media defines the typical speed as the average speed received by 66% of customers over a 24 hour period. We also think they could go further by presenting the typical average directly on their broadband product pages, as opposed to being in a separate section.

Virgin Media's "Speedhonesty" Page
http://www.virginmedia.com/speedhonesty

The Communications Consumer Panel (CCP), which claims to be an independent watchdog for the communications sector but does little to engage with consumers directly, has written to the UK governments Culture Minister (Ed Vaizey) and asked him to compel ISPs to advertise average or typical broadband speed information rather than "up to" speeds.

The panel itself welcomed Ofcom's recent move to toughen its Voluntary Code of Practice on Broadband Speeds (full news), although they expressed concern that it might place too great a burden on consumers in finding out what speed they are getting and addressing lower than expected speeds.

Ofcom's most recent broadband speed study and code update found that ISPs who advertised "up to 8Mb / 10Mb" broadband services actually only delivered an average of 3.3Megabits per second (Mbps).


The move appears designed to capitalise on efforts by The Gadget Show, a highly popular Channel FIVE TV series, which on Monday re-launched its long held campaign to have the words "up to" removed from how broadband ISP services in the UK are advertised (full news).

It also comes at a time when the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) are running their own review into how broadband services are marketed (full news). The review itself will examine the use and abuse of both misleading broadband speed and "unlimited" usage allowance claims.

CCPs Open Letter

Dear Mr Vaizey,

The Communications Consumer Panel is a panel of independent experts set up under the Communications Act 2003 to advise Ofcom, Government and industry on the issues that matter to consumers in the communications sector.

We are writing to you to highlight our concerns over broadband speeds and to ask that you give your strong support to the action that is being taken by Ofcom and the review being carried out by the ASA. The Panel have been concerned about the way in which broadband is advertised and the information about speeds for several years now. The recent Ofcom research shows that the differential between advertised and promised speeds and actual speeds is actually growing, as speeds increase generally. In April 2009, average actual speeds were 58 per cent of average advertised ‘up to’ speeds. In May 2010, average actual speeds were 45 per cent of average advertised ‘up to’ speeds.

We do not think this is acceptable. Ofcom has introduced a new voluntary code of practice which commits ISPs to give consumers more accurate information on the speeds they should expect on their line and which allows consumers, in certain circumstances, to leave their provider if they get a lower speed than they were led to expect. We welcome this code, however, we are concerned that it places too great a burden on consumers in finding out what speed they are getting and addressing lower than expected speeds.

It is clear to the Panel, that the most consumer-friendly approach to regulation in this area would be for ISPs to give consumers clearer information about speeds both pre- and post-sale, to proactively address speed-related problems and to give customers a discount or allow them to move provider within contracted periods if consumers are not getting the speeds they were led to expect. Some providers already offer this, so this kind of best practice is clearly possible. Moreover, we believe ISPs should change their advertising practices in order to avoid the danger of misleading consumers.

The role of the Panel is to challenge industry to do better for consumers. We will therefore be encouraging ISPs to adopt the sorts of best practice activity set out above. We will also be pressing Ofcom to continue to keep the code, and its effectiveness, under review and to make improvements where necessary. Finally we will be encouraging the Committee on Advertising Practice (at the ASA) to strengthen their code so that ISPs must advertise average or typical speeds rather than up-to-speeds.

We hope we can count on your support in underscoring to the industry the unacceptability of the current situation and the need for them to do more and better to ensure consumers are treated fairly in this crucial market place.

Yours faithfully

Anna Bradley

Chair, Communications Consumer Panel

CCP are at least the first group to propose an alternative to the "up to" method of advertising, although they do not clarify precisely how their proposal for advertising "average or typical broadband speed" would actually work. It's also unclear how CCP plan to encourage ISPs to adopt their plan, although writing the odd press release is at least a start, we suppose.

Cable operator Virgin Media UK has increased its manned broadband installation charges from £35 to £40, although most of its standalone broadband deals (20Mbps - 50Mbps packages) and bundles (broadband, phone and television services) are still offering a FREE Installation deal.

The "first 3 months" discount promotion is also still running, which for example will give a 10Mbps package from just £5 per month for the first 3 months of service (£12.50 thereafter, when taken with a phone service).

UK ISP Fibreband, which is one of two providers offering "super-fast" internet access over the i3 Group's next generation 100Mbps Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH ) fibre optic Fibrecity network in Bournemouth and soon Dundee too, has revamped its packages and begun offering standalone broadband services.

Optic25 - £25.99 per month
25Mbps download guaranteed
5Mbps upload guaranteed
Free Setup
Unlimited download allowance (Fair Usage Policy)

Optic50 - £29.99 per month
Up to 50Mbps download
25Mbps download guaranteed
5Mbps upload guaranteed
Free Setup
Unlimited download allowance (Fair Usage Policy)

Optic100 - £45.99 per month
Up to 100Mbps download
40Mbps download guaranteed
10Mbps upload guaranteed
Free Setup
Unlimited download allowance (Fair Usage Policy)

Customers who still want to bundle in free phone calls can do so on any of the above packages by paying an additional £2.50 per month. This will enable you to call "UK landline numbers [free evening and weekend] and other Fibreband customers completely free of charge." As per usual, calls must be terminated before 60 minutes and then redialled to continue being free.

There's also a range of business packages, which cost from £40 per month (+£49 setup fee) with download speeds of up to 50Mbps; rises to £100 per month if you want 100Mbps uploads and downloads. Sadly Fibreband's website is very sparse, with no real support pages to speak of and they don't say whether VAT is being included or excluded.

The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has extended its digital remit to cover misleading promotions for products on a business's own website, such as for the sites run by most broadband ISPs. Until now this has allowed some internet providers to flout the rules, leaving only Ofcom with any power to effect a change and they generally do not tackle individual cases like the ASA.

The ASA’s present remit online includes ads in paid-for space and sales promotions wherever they appear. But from next year, the rules in the UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing (the CAP Code) will apply in full to marketing communications online, including the rules relating to misleading advertising, social responsibility and the protection of children.

As well as extending the rules to have such adverts removed, the ASA will now also be able to place advertisements online highlighting an advertiser's continued non-compliance. That could certainly prove to be rather amusing. Sadly there's still no prospect of repeat offenders facing a fine or advertising restrictions.



The ASA's new remit will come into force on 1st March 2011, after a 6 month period of grace to allow the ASA and CAP to conduct training work to raise awareness and educate business on the requirements of the CAP Code.

It is no coincidence that the ASA is currently also taking a comprehensive look at the use and abuse of misleading broadband speed and "unlimited" claims (full details). Combining the outcome from that, assuming it's a useful result, with today's new rules could prove to be much more helpful when trying to keep ISPs honest.

Comparison site Broadband.co.uk has released its latest anecdotal monthly broadband speed testing results for the past month of August 2010, which saw the average UK internet download speed drop slightly from 5.106Mbps in July to 4.980Mbps now.

It is no surprise to find that the cable giant, Virgin Media UK, continues to have the fastest average internet download rate of any ISP at 9.626Mbps. However this is slower than the 10.041Mbps they recorded in July. O2 ( Be Broadband ) remains in 2nd place on 5.806Mbps, which is up slightly over July's 5.748Mbps.

Top ISPs for Download Speed
1. Virgin Media – 9.626Mbps
2. O2 ( Be Broadband ) – 5.806Mbps
3. Sky Broadband – 3.964Mbps
4. BT – 3.838Mbps
5. TalkTalk ( Tiscali ) – 3.759Mbps
6. Eclipse Internet – 3.597Mbps
7. Orange – 3.026Mbps
8. PlusNet – 2.997Mbps
9. AOL – 2.738Mbps

Top ISPs for Upload Speed
1. O2 ( Be Broadband ) - 0.769Mbps
2. Virgin Media - 0.682Mbps
3. Sky Broadband - 0.518Mbps
4. BT - 0.499Mbps
5. TalkTalk ( Tiscali ) - 0.464Mbps
6. Eclipse Internet - 0.392Mbps
7. Orange - 0.387Mbps
8. PlusNet - 0.386Mbps
9. AOL - 0.371Mbps

The overall average UK upload speed saw yet another slight rise, going from 0.521Mbps in July to 0.533Mbps now. Virgin Media continued to gain on O2 ( Be Broadband ), which normally lead for uploads, and at some point in the future we expect Virgin to be top of both lists.

It is worth remembering that Virgin Media also plan to launch a 100Mbps download service towards the end of this year and have plans for faster 10-20Mbps upload speeds too. Virgin's ability to deploy into a significant swathe of the country (roughly half of the UK) in a short space of time makes them quite formidable.

Broadband provider Aquiss has "broken rank" by offering new subscribers to its 40Mb fibre optic ( FTTC ) based business focused broadband packages a FREE Install / Activation.

All Aquiss FTTC packages provide customers with up to 40Mbps download speeds (minimum predicted throughput guarantee of 12Mbps) and upload options of up to 10Mbps, a choice of either a single IP or a no-NAT /29 range of IPs and unlimited off-peak monthly usage allowances.

Sample of the first package

Business 45 (FTTC Broadband)
- Monthly Usage Allowance: 45GB (Unlimited Offpeak)
- Contract Period: 12 Month
- Download Speed: Up to 40Mbps
- Upload Speed: Up to 10Mbps
- Webspace: 500MB
- Choice of 1 or 8 Static IPs
- Price: £32.00 (ex VAT)

The normal BT Wholesale fee for activation is around £75 +vat, which includes the installation of a free VDSL modem by a BT engineer.

Shaping Norfolk's Future, a business-led partnership that works to create wealth and jobs for the people of East Anglia and Norfolk in the UK, has lashed out at yesterdays claim by BT that "Broadband Britain [had] been a success story". The group noted that many residents and businesses in rural East Anglia are still without broadband or struggle to get anything more than a slow internet connection speed.

The criticisms follow yesterdays celebrations by BT. The national operator was marking a historic milestone (full details) by announcing that its UK telecoms network was now home to 15 Million broadband ISP connections. However residents of Norfolk have so far been left out of its expanding broadband ambitions, not least in BT's rollout of newer fibre optic ( FTTC ) based 40Mbps broadband services.


The comments were supported by a spokeswoman from the East of England Development Agency (EEDA), which noted that "Reliable, affordable next generation broadband (minimum 20mbps) is a must for businesses across the whole region". That is of course true of almost everywhere else in the country too.

However it is not the first time that BT has faced attack from Norfolk residents and businesses. In November 2009 BT was slated by the same group for saying that "there's a very good possibility of getting 2Mbps minimum across 100% of Norfolk in three to five years". Back then the universal 2Mbps target was still set at 2012, although it has since been delayed to 2015.

Then in January 2010 the Norfolk County Council hammered BT for excluding the region in its growing rollout of fibre optic based broadband services (here). To be fair on BT, it was early days back then and the operator could not be expected to reach everybody within a short period of time.

Separately, we're not sure where the "minimum 20mbps" definition for Next Generation Broadband came from. We note that this has also been used as a standard by other local council projects and the VOA, albeit one that some appear to ignore (example). Ofcom defined "super-fast" broadband in March 2010 as "broadband with speeds greater than 24Mbps", so as to avoid ADSL2+ ISPs claiming they could offer it and thus confusing the market.

Starkie also claims that anybody who lives "more than 2.5kms from an exchange" probably won't get broadband at all, which is not normally the case in other areas. In fact basic broadband over copper lines (i.e. ADSL , ADSL2+ etc.) has a reach of around 6.5km (variable) from the exchange before it becomes too unreliable. Perhaps he meant street cabinets.

The i3 Group's Fibrecity project, which is already offering "super-fast" 100Mb Fibre-to-the-Home ( FTTH ) fibre optic broadband ISP services in the south coast city of Bournemouth (Dorset), has asked for residents who want to be connected to its next fibre optic network in Dundee (Scotland) to apply now and benefit from a FREE connection.

Work on its Dundee service has now begun and it will soon start connecting the first non-trial customers. Fibrecity's network currently aims to connect around 1 Million UK properties to its superfast network within the next four years, with Derby, Halton, Nottingham, Plymouth and York next on its list after Dundee.



Further cities under consideration for future Fibrecity networks include Aberdeen, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol and Ipswich. The i3 Group is also investigating the possibility of expanding out to cover smaller rural areas too, provided they can make the economics work.

Residents and businesses in Dundee can apply for a free connection to the Fibrecity Dundee network by either calling 0800 954 2020 or visiting a dedicated website, www.getreadydundee.com, where an application can be made online. Broadband upload and download speeds range from a minimum of 25Mbps to 100Mbps with boost of 'up to' 1Gbps. Prices tend to start at around £20-£25 per month, with phone and TV service options also being available.

The promising news comes despite i3's recent setback in Bournemouth, where the group was forced to abandon its plans for using the city's underground sewers after Wessex Water pulled out of the deal on technical and business-related grounds (full news). Other city deployments have not been affected.

The sometimes controversial Chinese telecommunications solutions firm, Huawei, has strengthened its partnership with BT Openreach by providing a number of access products to aid deployment of the operators new national "super-fast" UK fibre optic broadband ISP network.

BT is investing £2.5bn so that 66% of the UK population can use its next generation internet access services by 2015. Presently this roll-out has been dominated by 'up to' 40Mb Fibre-to-the-Cabinet ( FTTC ) technology and will soon be joined by BT's 100Mb Fibre-to-the-Premises ( FTTH / P ) service.



BT and Huawei have been working together on FTTC solutions since 2008. The new deal will make use of Huawei's SingleFAN (fibre access network) solution, which uses an "open and unified platform" and should help BT to cut its operation and maintenance costs. The kit is also designed to support future multi-play services, such as bundled IPTV products, possibly even at the wholesale level.