BE Provides Free Wi-Fi for Communities
December 23, 2009
As part of the Freerunner scheme, BE Broadband will provide free wireless network to some forty-six communities that are currently not connected to internet.
A competition was conducted for communities in the last summer. The winners are going to be presented with free Wi-Fi access for a least of three years without considering the current providers in the area.
CEO of Freerunner, Owen Geddes said that as a part of project, BE would be providing the communities free Wi-Fi access. He added that, these selected 50 communities across the UK will be soon enjoying Internet access free of cost. This project will considerably help these groups to increase their potencies. These communities that get access badly deserve internet access, said Mr. Geddes.
Head of operations at BE Broadband, Tom Williams said that Wi-Fi is no more a plaything but a necessity these days. Still now, some of the dedicated communities of the UK are depending on Cafes for internet access, so it’s a great matter to provide them internet access, that too for free by Freerunner project. The selected communities are from the diverse parts of the country.
BT Cross 5 million Customers; Project Canvas to be Released Soon
December 22, 2009
Before this Christmas, on 9th December, BT has become the first ISP to have five million customers in the UK. Elizabeth Patterson, a chip shop worker from East Kilbride, Glasgow is the five millionth customer of BT.
BT awarded their five millionth broadband customer with an attractive luxury trip. During the trip to Canada, she can also watch Winter Olympics at Vancouver. Mrs. Patterson showed her gratitude and said that being never to Canada before; she would like to have the trip. She added that she had signed up for broadband for purchasing Christmas presents and to help her son with his education.
John Petter, managing director of BT’s Consumer division said that with this, BT is never going to stop the unending quest for making new plans and getting broadband cheaper. BT is preparing way to meet six million customers. He added that within two years, BT will get the next one million customers.
Mr. Petter added that Broadband has got an immense power to transform people’s life. More than 14 million customers in the UK are depending on Broadband for various purposes, this is a proof for this.
He then mentioned about the next mission ‘Project Canvas’ which was to launch soon in partnership with BBC, ITV, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk. Already, people of the UK are enjoying high facilities and low rates because of the high completions between ISPs. By the launch of Project Canvas the coming year, broadband customers of BT can enjoy iPlayer and ITVPlayer in their TV set.
Christmas Decorations Decreasing Broadband Speed
December 21, 2009
Recently, a survey has found that Christmas is a season in which people are affected from low broadband speeds. This is due to the overuse of lights and other electric decorative items that emits radiations.
In festive seasons when decorative lights are used in abundance, there will be considerable slowdown in the broadband speeds. This has already been noted during the past few years. Regardless of the ISP, there will be a noticeable slowdown in speed.
During the last few years many people are affected from this experience, but none would have thought that their lights have something to do with internet speed. All most all customers who use broadband were affected by this, reports said.
Usually people think that the speed of their net depends on the distance between them and exchange. But, this not true; there are so many other factors that could reduce the speed.
Even though it seems silly, intrusion from electric lights and wirings can decrease the broadband speed. At the time of Christmas, when people use lights abundantly, the speed will come low significantly.
To avoid the speed drop, people can adopt some precautions. Keeping the wirings and lights as far as possible from routers is the first step. While purchasing lights, buy them from reputed brands and to the maximum avoid dimming lights.
Ofcom Sets New Policies for ISPs
December 19, 2009
Telecoms regulator, Ofcom proposes some new strategies for the Internet Service Providers. They include friendly problem seeking and faster solving of the complaints.
Ofcom reports that customers are suffering from serious problems in fixing their troubles with broadband. They often find it difficult to discuss it with their providers.
Ofcom is now seriously planning to impose some rules so that ISPs would deal customer related problems faster and precisely. The new rules will help the customers to fix their problems easily.
At the moment, as per Ofcom reports, they receive at least 1,000 complaints each month from unsatisfied broadband customers. Most of the complaints are about the negligence from the part of providers.
Ofcom states that even after 12 months, more than a quarter of the complaints are not solved by different providers. Customers even strive hard to bring to notice of the providers their problems. To make a compliant is frustrating for many.
Ofcom says that although many people are not aware about the scope of ‘Alternative Dispute Resolution’, the some those who depend on it find their problems got considerable observation from providers. ADR leaves the cases with separate organizations to care for.
Ofcom is putting forward some new plans so that customers will not find it difficult to make their complaints.
Broadband providers should have a good ear to their customers and all the complaints should be answered. Good standards must be kept by providers in the matter of complaints’ dealing.
Ofcom demands Broadband providers to inform the people about their chances with Alternative Dispute Resolution. Providers should add details about this on bills and letters. By this, people will be given right to use ADR within eight weeks of their complaint.
Ofcom says, all these are set on only one code and that is ‘customer satisfaction’.
The UK- 2nd in Broadband Growth
December 18, 2009
During the last half decade, the UK broadband customers increased steeply. The figure is calculated to be second below only to Netherlands.
Ofcom states that in the last five years ending in 2008, every 23 persons from 100 took broadband connection. Whereas in Netherlands, the topper in European mainland; a massive 25 percentage of the total population took broadband connection in the last five years.
A survey shows that in 2008 itself, about 9.1 percentage of the UK households is connected to broadband world.
Chief executive of Ofcom, Ed Richards said that this immense growth shows that the UK is well exposed to the growing innovations in the field of technology and digital services. Since there were serious completions between providers, there was considerable reduction in the price as well, this motivated more people to use broadband, added Mr. Ed Richards.
Ofcom reports states that, it is in the UK that people enjoy the lowest charges for broadband. For many services including television and internet bundles, the UK keeps record for lowest prices. From July 2008 to the same month in 2009, there was about 14 per cent reduction in broadband service charges. Ofcom already had noticed that people are looking for bundled packages to get more reductions.
Since the last year, percent of people preferring for bundles of packages increased to 35 %. Consumers started opting single provider for all their digital needs including broadband, television and mobile technology.
