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Tele2 UK To Announce New Business Broadband Service After completing successful trials, Tele2 will also announce plans to implement OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing) to boost the capacity and performance of its network, providing speeds up to 26 times faster than ADSL. At the Internet World exhibition Tele2 will be promoting its business broadband service as a superior alternative to DSL/ADSL, and equal to that of a leased line but at a much lower cost. "Every business, small or large needs a fast and reliable broadband connection, which gives us the opportunity to educate a significant number of potential customers about Tele2’s very latest business-class, high-speed and low cost broadband solution," said Elliott Mueller, CEO of Tele2. "Internet World 2001 was a great success for Tele2, and we believe this year could be even better!” said Mueller. Tele2 is currently rolling out its wireless network with the aim of delivering coverage to 65 per cent of the UK population by 2003. More details of Tele2’s broadband packages for businesses and the successful trials using OFDM will be announced on 11th June at Internet World. Coming To An Exchange Near You... With 1,115 exchanges now upgraded for ADSL Internet access, BT Wholesale is working towards a target of one million connections by the middle of next year. BT committed to these further exchange upgrades last month, when newly announced lower prices and fresh marketing initiatives stimulated greater demand and warranted the investment. Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale, said, "I am delighted by the huge increase in demand for broadband. The results are excellent: installations of more than 11,000 a week, and a customer base for BT Wholesale of almost a quarter of a million connections. With results like this I'm confident we'll more than meet the targets we have set ourselves. "We've taken great strides towards broadband Britain, and BT Wholesale is making it happen." BT Wholesale's upgrade of 100 new exchanges over the past few weeks is in response to a growing demand from broadband users, service providers and end-user businesses, based on the new costs and wholesale prices announced in March. Sixty six percent of households (73 per cent of current Internet users) are now connected to broadband enabled exchanges. To check if ADSL is available where you are, try BT's availability checker. Latest List Of ADSL-Enabled Exchanges The 21 exchanges below are from a list of 100 announced by BTwholesale in April. AcombSource: ADSLguide UK 'Obsessed' With Mobile Phones - Survey In a survey of mobile phone users between the ages of 15 and 35, 86% said they would never intentionally leave home without their handset and if they did accidentally, felt “anxious and out of touch”. The main reason was a need to feel continuously in contact with friends, in particular boy/ girlfriends. While 96% said they use their phone on a daily basis, three quarters of these admitted that to avoid a confrontation or difficult situation they were more likely to send an SMS message than make a phone call. According to 57%, text messaging is also the preferred means of communicating on public transport because it eliminated the stigma of making calls in public. However, the shame attached to making ‘public’ calls does not extend to ring tones. 58% of those interviewed said they had downloaded a ring tone from a web site or magazine advertisement because they felt the call alerts available on standard issue mobile handsets were ‘boring’ or ‘sad’. The consensus amongst these users was that customisation, whether ring tones or phone casings, enables them to “individualise” their phones in the same way that they choose clothes or haircuts. “For teenagers and younger adults, mobile phones have reached cult status. It is not so much the convenience of being able to make a call at any time from anywhere that is important, it is what the individual feels the phone says about them,” explained Tero Borvonpotsakul, UK MD, WapOneline. Tero continued: “It was interesting that one of the most popular ring tones, the theme from Trigger Happy TV, was also the most hated. However, ring tones have a short shelf life. Our research revealed that the majority of those downloading ring tones change them every six months and 23% change them on a weekly basis.” 15% of those interviewed with a traditional “ring ring” call alert said that they had been accused of being boring by friends or colleagues for not customising their phones. Amazon And BOL Agree To Refund Delivery Charges Under the Distance Selling Regulations consumers have the right to a cooling off period of seven working days after receipt on most goods. The OFT view is that the normal postage and packing charges for the delivery, but not the return, of distance sales purchases must always be refunded in addition to the cost of the goods when orders are cancelled during the cooling off period. Welcoming the agreement of the two companies to follow OFT's interpretation of the Regulations, John Vickers, Director General of Fair Trading said, "The Distance Selling Regulations give consumers the security to buy from home, confident that they can change their mind once they have received and seen their goods. Consumers are entitled to a refund of normal delivery charges when goods are returned." The OFT is currently in negotiation with a number of other companies under the Distance Selling Regulations regarding the refunding of delivery charges. Broadband Supporter Becomes New E-Commerce Minister Stephen Timms MP, appointed as the UK's e-commerce minister on Wednesday, has a long track record when it comes to issues such as high-speed Internet services. Unlike his predecessor Douglas Alexander, whom few in the technology sector had heard of when he took on the role in June 2001, Timms has been involved in IT for some 20 years, and believes that the government must play a key role in supporting the high-tech sector. Before entering parliament, Timms worked for analyst group Ovum and managed their telecommunications reports business. He has also been employed at Logica. Since becoming a Labour MP through a by-election in 1994, Timms has repeatedly spoken about the importance of broadband to the UK, and has served as the honorary president of the Parliamentary Information Technology Committee. Source: ZDNet UK Lags Behind In Broadband League Table A report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, (OECD), puts the UK at number 22 out of the 30 richest nations for broadband take-up. The UK has not moved position since the last OECD study in October, says the report leaked to the technology news weekly, Computing. It could prove embarrassing for the government, which has pledged to make the UK the best place in the West world for broadband services by 2005. A spokesperson for the Department of Trade and Industry said they would not comment on the report until its official publication later this year, but added that the true picture may not be represented. Source: BBC Microsoft Databases Targeted By Internet Worm Security experts first warned of the problem last week. Since then the worm, also known as Spida, has attacked thousands of machines running Microsoft SQL Server. The worm attacks port 1433, with more attacks on this port reported over the past week than port 80, which was the focus of the Nimda and Code Red attacks. Source: Silicon.com BTopenworld Signs World Cup Roaming Deal The deal with Japan's Nifty Corporation has been signed in time for the World Cup so that BTopenworld's Anytime, Surftime and Broadband services customers travelling to the Far East can use email to keep in touch with the office or family and get up-to-the-minute match reports. BTopenworld and Nifty are leading members of the Global Internet Alliance which brings together ISPs from the Americas, Europe and Asia to work on issues including international roaming, instant messaging standards and global e-commerce. The partnership allows BTopenworld subscribers to connect to Nifty's points of presence in Japan. Once on the Internet, users will only be charged a local rate tariff. Alison Ritchie, CEO, BTopenworld said, "This partnership is a major step forward for international roaming. It means that anyone travelling to Japan for the World Cup or on business can easily and cost-effectively get on the Net. Our deal with Nifty is the first of many partnerships that we're working on with market-leading ISPs across the globe. We want to offer our customers an inexpensive and uncomplicated way of keeping in touch with the office, friends or family." Customers wanting to use the service need to take down the appropriate access code before they travel. This information can be found at www.btopenworld.com/roaming. On arrival, they will then need to connect their laptop into the nearest phone socket and dial the @Nifty telephone number. By dialling this they will request access to the Internet from Nifty's nearest Point Of Presence. Nifty then requests authentication from BTopenworld's server. On receipt of this, Nifty connects the user to the Internet. The whole process should take under 30 seconds. The local rate charge for time spent online will appear on their hotel bill. WAP Use On The Increase WAP-enabled phones now account for 14 per cent of the market and 37 per cent of WAP owners actually use these services, which accounts for over a million users in the UK. The report says this represents a significant increase from a year ago with WAP phones being used mainly by men (62 per cent) compared with females (38 per cent). The services being accessed by WAP owners vary from Internet services (37 per cent) sending and receiving e-mails (25 per cent) through to accessing locational information and on-line shopping (both at seven per cent). Gunda Lapski, director of Telecoms and Utilities Studies, at J.D. Power's European office, said, "The increase in the use of WAP services may well be linked to the fact that for the first time since 1999 there is an increase in the percentage of new mobile users choosing pay monthly/contract tariffs." Also encouraging news for mobile phone providers is that contract customers use their mobile services more and spend double per month than pre-pay customers. E-Commerce Minister Ousted In Cabinet Reshuffle Douglas Alexander, who was appointed as e-commerce minister last year, has been promoted to the Cabinet Office, according to reports. The move is part of the Cabinet reshuffle which took place today following the resignation on Tuesday of Stephen Byers, former secretary of state for transport. Alexander, seen as a rising star of the Labour Party, had been criticised for not making himself more available to the media. In his time as e-commerce minister he was deeply involved in the issue of broadband. Source: ZDnet Broadband4Britain Announces UK DSL ‘Flashpoint’ The announcement follows consultation with independent analysts, industry experts, equipment suppliers and some of the operators themselves. Business case figures reviewed by the campaign show that an entrepreneurial service provider taking advantage of the latest DSL technology would see rapid pay-back on their capital investment should around 40 residential customers and 10 business customers subscribe. On that basis, Broadband4Britain believes that SDSL and ADSL roll-out to non-urban communities can and should be accelerated, and immediately launched its ‘Local Heroes’ campaign, designed to ignite demand outside of the UK’s major towns and cities. Campaign manager Andy Williams: "FlashPoint 50 destroys the myth that non-urban DSL roll-out is uneconomic. In fact, some of our discussions have indicated an even lower number of users, based on different services and longer payback times. We renew our call to government and the telecommunications industry to upgrade 20% of non-urban telephone exchanges to broadband capability within one year." In support of that call Broadband4Britain has today also announced a revolutionary initiative to accelerate the rollout of nationwide high-speed communications services. The BB4B campaign is offering to team up with community groups and local authorities to understand and map their local demand for better high-speed Internet access services. "If SMEs realised that they could save as much as 80% of their ISDN or leased-line-based Internet access costs, and get a service that is 5 times faster and always-on, demand for broadband services would skyrocket," said Barrie Desmond, Broadband4Britain’s founder and small business owner. Broadband4Britain is actively recruiting broadband "Local Heroes" to evangelise the benefits of broadband Internet access within their communities, with the objective of igniting non-urban broadband demand. Business and residential customers will be asked to pledge themselves to take broadband services, should a service provider make them available. The resulting demand map will be made available to all service providers. "This campaign represents around 300 000 broadband have-nots across the UK," continued Williams. "We aim to mobilise them to create a large number of broadband education and demand creation campaigns within their local communities. We think that many communities can bust the Flashpoint 50 target wide open. If we’re proved right, we’ll be challenging national and local government and the telecoms industry to figure out ways to build out the capacity and meet the demand." BTopenworld Teams Up With Intel The special deals were launched yesterday at the Intel Channel Conference in Birmingham. Tony Harris, president Business Internet Services at BTopenworld said: "This high-performance platform unleashes the full potential of broadband Internet access by bringing an enhanced Internet experience, faster video and audio, and richer 3D graphics. The package simplifies the sales proposition for dealers by enabling them to offer high-performance PCs and add real value through the provision of high-speed Internet services." Utilising Intel's reseller channels, BTopenworld anticipates more than 30,000 orders over the next 12 months. Nildram Selected For High-Speed Satellite Trial Iain Ogilvie, Nildram's Marketing Manager commented, "We are pleased to have been selected for the trial as it reinforces Nildram's commitment to providing high-speed Internet access across the UK." He continued, "Satellite connection will enable faster Internet access for those that, up until now, have been too far from an ADSL enabled exchange - we believe it will prove to be popular!" Internet users who have been unable to get a broadband ADSL connection because of their geographical location, can now transform their existing Internet access by adding a high speed, 'always on', Internet download capability with speeds up to 256kp/s, via a 65cm satellite dish. In addition, users can select a higher download speeds up to 4mbit/s for specific tasks when needed. The satellite service provides fast Internet service with a basic download speed of up to 256kbp/s. Bandwidth management enables users to select one of four optional preferred speeds, for even faster data download during an Internet session. Optional speeds are 512kbps, 1Mbp/s, 2Mbp/s or 4Mbp/s, charged on a pay-as-you go basis. Anyone interested in learning more about the satellite trial can register their interest by e-mailing satellite@nildram.net to receive details as soon as they are published. BT In £3m Homelink Technologies Deal Under the deal, BT has taken a 30% stake in Glasgow-based Homelink Technologies, which currently develops smart-boxes allowing residential users to monitor and control household security systems via fixed and mobile networks. A spokesperson for BT also said that HomeLink's technology would provide a platform for the delivery of a range of new digital services to households offered through local authorities, and offered examples of remote control of central heating and lighting systems, household appliances and monitoring of the elderly or infirm. HomeLink said the deal would help to grow its local authority and housing association base significantly - a market that accounts for 5.2m homes across the UK. The company has run trials with 10 councils across the UK since its formation 23 months ago. The move will also see BT's former business development director Brian Myers becoming chief executive of Homelink. Source: Netimperative Rural Broadband Let Down By OFCOM The government's flagship Communications Bill offers little new help to the many millions of UK people who have no access to affordable broadband services at home, according to the head of Oftel. Oftel director-general David Edmonds said on Monday that OFCOM would not be in a significantly better position to drive the rollout of high-speed Internet services to more rural areas. Edmonds made his comments as he appeared before the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Bill. Anne Picking MP, a member of this committee, asked Edmonds whether he thought OFCOM will be better able than Oftel to ensure that people living in remote areas of the UK are offered the chance to get a broadband Internet connection. In response, Edmonds said that he did not believe it would. "In short, the situation won't be any worse," Edmonds said. Source: ZDnet EU Urges Financial Incentives For Broadband In its "eEurope 2005" report on how to foster information technology due to be unveiled today, the European Union will put high-speed broadband Internet access on top of its agenda. Although competition is driving Internet connection costs down, broadband remains generally expensive in the EU, with less than two percent of households having fast Internet connections against 13 percent in the United States. Without broadband, industry cannot easily offer consumers advanced multimedia Internet services such as videos, graphics or musical files. A draft copy of the report said, "Competition is expected to drive investment, generate innovation and lower prices. "Therefore, public policy should focus on issues where competition is not effective or where political objectives, e.g. territorial coverage with a view to cohesion, need to be ensured." Europe's efforts to increase broadband Internet access to bridge the gap with the United States have so far focused on liberalising the last mile of telecoms networks, a process that was kicked off in January 2001 but which has proved slow. Source: Reuters Vodafone Announces Record £13.5bn Loss The losses are equal to equating to £37 million a day - but its share price has surged as the figures were not as bad as expected. Chief executive Sir Chris Gent says, "These are excellent results. The bottom-line loss could be misleading. This disguises the true performance of the business." Despite the company revealing the largest loss in UK corporate history, the Vodafone boss may still be in line for a multi-million-pound bonus this year. BT Confirms Satellite Internet Trials The six-month trial will involve six independent satellite service providers, which together with BT will look at customer usage and demand for the service. From May 31st, the trial will allow always-on receipt of e-mail from the major UK Internet service providers, as well as fast download of music, photos and other documents. Paul Reynolds, chief executive of BT Wholesale said, "We are absolutely committed to bringing the latest communication services to as many people as possible on the best terms possible. This satellite solution enables us to offer affordable high-speed connections where it is impossible with our other technologies. "Our aim is that it will become part of the framework that will build up to enable broadband Britain." The satellite service providers selected to work on the trial include: PlusNet, Eclipse Internet, izR Solutions, and KB Media. Aimed at small businesses and high use residential customers, the service will download via a 65cm receive-only satellite dish, at speeds from 256 kbps. Higher speeds up to 4Mbps will be available on a pay-as-used basis as the trial progresses. The return path will be via a conventional phone line to the consumer's existing Internet service provider. The satellite service providers will set their own prices to the consumer. The wholesale price for the trial will be £10 a month rental to service providers, with a one-off connection charge of £360 for the equipment and installation of the dish at the end user's site for most sites. Kingston Communications Announce £29m Earnings The figures are up 85% from £15.8 million last year. Turnover also rose by 40% to £316.3 million. Commenting on the results, Chairman Michael Abrahams said, "Kingston has delivered a solid performance over the last financial year in extremely difficult conditions within the telecoms sector. We have made considerable progress throughout the Group and, as these results demonstrate, have continued to win new business and grow our business with existing customers. This performance together with our secure funding position means we are well placed to build on these results and maintain our growth over the coming years." During the last quarter, the division launched a range of business DSL services in Leeds and the East Midlands. Kingston said that early indications are promising, with the first trial customer installations underway. Latest Opera Download Fixes ‘Most Devastating’ Vulnerability Discovered by GreyMagic Software, the vulnerability in Opera 6.01 and 6.02 for Windows allows a web site to download any local file directly from the user and does not require any interaction. This vulnerability is currently the most devastating one found in Opera. Version 6.03 for Windows is available for download now from Opera.com. Latest List Of ADSL-Enabled Exchanges Last month BTwholesale announced 100 local exchanges that would be enabled by the end of May. This would mean that ADSL services would be available to more than two thirds of the UK population, a total of 16 million households, by the end of the month. On Friday, details of 13 exchanges were released. Now the following 14 should take this month's figures somewhere near the 100 announced by BT. SheffordSource: ADSLguide Former Minister Faces Grilling Over ISP Lord Garel-Jones is one of 10 directors of Recol Networks summoned to appear before Baltazar Garzon, the magistrate investigating the allegations. The demand that Lord Garel-Jones, now a senior adviser to investment bank UBS Warburg, give evidence appears to be a formality, as he only joined the board of Recol after the €29m (£20m) share placing at the centre of the inquiry. But predicting the outcome of legal investigations is difficult and Mr Garzon is not afraid to take extreme action in pursuit of justice. He shot to fame two years ago when he attempted to extradite General Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, from London. Source: FT.com Klez.H Becomes 'Biggest Virus Ever' MessageLabs registered 776,725 instances of the Klez H-variant as of 11:00(BST) this morning - 14,000 more than the SirCam worm which has been plaguing networks since July last year. According to MessageLabs, the Klez worm now accounts for one out of every 300 emails sent worldwide, with 20,000 intercepted every day. Like SirCam, one of the reasons Klez has been so successful is because there is no familiar title, message line or text for users to look out for. It also fakes the sender's address, meaning it is very difficult to tell where the worm has come from, stopping people from informing others who unknowingly have been spreading the worm. Source: Silicon.com ADSL For Under £20 On Its Way Currently the cheapest ADSL service we know of is the PlusNet ADSL Home Surf product, which is priced at £20.99 per month. Although the use of file sharing programmes such as Kazaa is restricted. V21 announced last month that it is to launch an ADSL service for £19.99, which is expected to launch in August. We'll let you know as soon as we find out more on the £19.99 ADSL service. Norfolk Petitions For ADSL With New Website Norfolk has today taken a step nearer towards ADSL with the launch of a new petition website which has also received support from the local MP. Formerly started as a simple petition, Broadband Norfolk is a new website set up to campaign for broadband access for the whole of Norfolk. Now the site has officially received support from Tony Wright, MP for Great Yarmouth and the surrounding area. Broadband Norfolk is well on the way to obtaining 500 signatures from local residents, schools and businesses. Broadband Norfolk does not want a situation to appear where businesses, schools and colleges in Norfolk are disadvantaged from their counterparts in cities because they don't have access to broadband Internet connections. The site hopes to achieve broadband access for the whole of Norfolk through the aide of a petition showing BT there is a demand for ADSL in Norfolk and hopes to get companies and the local government interested in helping fund BT upgrade Norfolk's telephone exchanges. Broadband Norfolk also hopes to get NTL to rollout their cable modem broadband access to the cabled areas of Norfolk that have yet to receive it and try to get NTL to expand their cabled areas in Norfolk. Big Brother Fans Protest Over Online Charges To watch Big Brother 3 online, Channel 4 now charges £9.99 per month following a 14–day free trial, much to the disappointment of its many followers. Fans of the popular programme are outraged with the introduction of the charges and are putting their points across on the Channel 4's forums. Many of the Big Brother's audience are young people and follow the programme online. Maybe this is why Channel 4 introduced the charges? Other complaints are from Mac users who are unable to view the show online as the RealOne broadcasts only work on newer Windows machines. Personally I wouldn't even start to watch Big Brother until loudmouth Jade is voted out. Linux For Playstation Comes To UK The kit allows games developers to gain experience in programming the console and hobbyists to experiment with Linux on relatively inexpensive hardware. It costs £155 and consists of a specially tailored version of Linux together with the hardware needed to turn the console into a full computer, though buyers still need to provide a compatible monitor. Besides Linux, the pack contains a hard disk, keyboard, mouse, monitor lead and network interface. PS2 owners buying the kit should be able to connect their console to a home network or to the internet if they have a broadband connection with a network socket. The kit has gone down well on Sony's domestic market in Japan, so it is now making it more widely available. Sony recommends that anyone buying the kit be computer-literate and have some familiarity with Linux. Source: BBC Orange Launches Unmetered Mobile Internet Service It will launch first in France, priced 6 euros a month (£3.80) and will be available to customers with GPRS and WAP-enabled handsets. It's expected to be extended across Europe by the end of the summer, although as yet no tariff details are available for the UK. GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) allows users to stay connected to Internet services and send and receive emails while making phone calls. The technology uses packet switching to transmit information in short bursts, allowing instant connections and faster downloads. Until now GPRS has been charged by the megabyte, or the amount of data accessed. Source: Ananova Beware Of World Cup Viruses, Say Experts Antivirus company Sophos say that seemingly harmless World Cup screensavers, spreadsheets and electronic wall charts could provide the ideal vehicles for virus and worm propagation. Sophos is therefore advising employees and home PC users not to open unsolicited emails, download material from the Internet or use anything on their computer which is not known to be virus-free. "Millions of people worldwide will be following the World Cup and will be using the internet and email to keep up to date with all the action," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant, Sophos Anti-Virus. "We have already seen viruses utilising the popularity of celebrities like Anna Kournikova and Britney Spears; David Beckham or Michael Owen could be next. Amidst the enthusiasm for the competition, it's important that users maintain a solid defence." The World Cup has provided the inspiration for viruses in the past, and the possibility of it happening again should not be ruled out. In 1998, in the run-up to the World cup competition in France, the WM97/ZMK-J virus asked infected victims to gamble on who the winner might be, and if the user did not choose the right team triggered a warhead which was capable of wiping all the data off the hard drive. The message to computer users is to remain as vigilant as England's defence in the 1966 World Cup final in order to prevent virus writers scoring virtual goals. As ever, those companies following safe computing guidelines can significantly reduce their chances of being hit by a new virus. 128K Unmetered Packages Finalised The new unmetered packages are as follows: Gio Ignite- £19.95 per month - aimed at light usersAll packages have a 2 hour cut-off period and have the following monthly restrictions: Gio Ignite 200hrs per month, Gio Ignite Plus 400hrs per month, Gio Ignite Gold 400hrs per month and Gio Opium 250hrs per month. Gio Internet, who claim to provide the UK's cheapest 24/7 unmetered 128K access, have said that signups will be restricted for the first 5000 users. Optional extras will include, fixed IP address and increased cut-off times. Details available at www.giointernet.com/unmetered. Microsoft To Patch XP For Anti-Trust Deal Microsoft and the U.S. Department of Justice agreed to a settlement in October designed to address complaints that the software giant was using its market dominance to bully computer manufacturers and others to favour its products. The settlement, which is being challenged as inadequate by nine states, would give computer makers more flexibility to feature rival software on their machines. The settlement is not binding until signed by the judge, although Microsoft agreed to comply with certain conditions before then, Jim Cullinan, lead product manager, told Reuters on Friday. The Windows XP Service Pack 1 will be released to more than 10,000 beta testers by the end of May and then made available to the public around the end of August, he said. The software allows computer manufacturers and users a variety of options in making default settings for certain popular programs including Web browser, e-mail, instant messenger and media player for audio and video. A new button on the Windows start menu, titled "set program access and defaults," allows users to choose between four default options: computer manufacturer choice; Microsoft only software; non-Microsoft software; and customised settings, which is the default choice. Users can choose to set defaults to one program but also display alternative programs, or they can hide other programs so that the icons are not on the desktop or in other areas, eliminating easy access to the programs. Previously, computer makers could set defaults to programs other than Microsoft's but could not hide Microsoft programs, except for the browser, like they can now. Microsoft allowed computer makers to hide access to Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser after an appeals court in June agreed with a lower court that Microsoft had illegally maintained its monopoly in personal computer operating systems. In the coming months, Microsoft plans to share code with competitors that will enable them to write programs that interact with XP in the same way Microsoft programs do. Source: Reuters Latest List Of ADSL-Enabled Exchanges Last month BTwholesale announced 100 local exchanges that would be enabled by the end of May. This would mean that ADSL services would be available to more than two thirds of the UK population, a total of 16 million households, by the end of the month. The latest 13 exchanges are: Brackley Dundee Steeple Gorleston Stone Staffs Winkfield Row Ryde Downland Newton Abbot Cantley Falkirk Wantage Brigg Bordon Source: ADSLguide Majority Of Customers Happy With Internet Service Figures show that 19.9% of users are extremely happy along with 28.4% who are very happy with their ISP. Out of 462 people who took part in the poll, 375 (81.2%) said they regarded their ISP to be average or above. Here at Net4Nowt we receive feedback on many ISPs, but unfortunately only when things start to go wrong. But this recent poll shows that only 18.8% of users feel their ISP to be below average. A recent survey of residential Internet customers conducted by MORI on behalf of Oftel showed in February that 89% were satisfied with their home Internet service. Our results support Oftel’s findings, which show that overall, Internet users are generally satisfied. Poll results: Extremely happy 19.9% (92)Our latest poll asks how our readers are connected to the Internet. BT dropped the price of its wholesale ADSL products allowing ISPs to lower its pricing to customers. With local exchanges slowly becoming enabled, ADSL is starting to become a reality for some users. So our latest poll asks how our readers are connected to the Internet. Yahoo To Scrap Internet Auctions Yahoo referred to its decision to pull out of the online auction business as a multi-year, multi- million euros "marketing alliance" with Ebay. In the future, Ebay will be featured on Yahoo's internet portal as the auction site of choice. Yahoo's own auction sites are set to close within six weeks as part of the online firm's efforts to improve profitability. Employees will be reallocated to other jobs within Yahoo Shopping and Yahoo Travel, so the closure of the auction sites should not cause job losses, said Yahoo Europe's managing director Mark Opzoomer. Source: BBC Pictures May Replace Passwords In The Future Replacing passwords with sequences of images is said to be much easier for people to remember. The technology could be of use for cash machines where it would be hard for a mugger to steal a picture sequence compared to a PIN code. Source: Vnunet Oftel Sets Out New Rules For Communications Regulation Oftel has published draft conditions that set out the requirements that operators will need to meet in order to provide electronic communications networks and services. They will replace the obligations contained in current telecoms licences which will be scrapped when the new conditions come into force in July 2003. David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications, said, "The new general conditions will establish a framework for interconnection and access, which is a key building block to create competitive markets." The requirements cover the inclusion of specific terms in contracts, procedures to resolve customer complaints, and a requirement to provide necessary services for consumers with disabilities. Operators will also have to provide reliable network services and negotiate interconnection arrangements with other network operators. And under a 'must-carry' condition, certain operators may be required to carry specific channels or programmes over their networks. The conditions will be backed by powers to fine companies up to ten per cent of turnover if they breach the conditions when the Communications Bill becomes law. The new arrangements will provide a much more streamlined and flexible regime for current and new operators and service providers. Email Scam Claims To Be From US Commando In Afghanistan The message asks recipients for help getting terrorist drug money out of the country, but appeals for bank details to be revealed. The US Secret Service says it is the latest incarnation of Nigerian letter fraud. The con already targets hundreds of people each day and 2,600 Americans fell for it last year. Two individuals lost over £50,000 each. Nigerian letter fraud usually takes the form of a request for help moving large sums of money from African to Western bank accounts. The new, Afghan email claims to be from Special Forces soldier Brandon Curtis, who says he has found $36 million in drug money during a patrol. Recipients are asked to agree to take delivery of the money and look after it until the commando returns from duty, in return for "an agreeable percentage". This involves sending bank details so the commando can cover shipment costs. Source: Ananova YooMedia Develop Mobile iTV Services “This doesn't require a remote control, so we can imagine it being used in pubs and clubs or where people are together. It dramatically increases the breadth of audience participation.” YooMedia is working on applications and plans to start trials with broadcasters over the next few months, generating revenues from a mix of licensing, sub-licensing and telephone charges, such as reverse SMS billing. Source: Revolution Preview Of Netscape 7.0 Released For Download The new browser has been developed around a technology called Gecko, which was created by the AOL-funded Mozilla open source browser movement. Interested users can read ZDNet's completed review of the preview (version 1) of Netscape 7.0 HERE, and the browser can be downloaded by clicking HERE. Tiscali Subscribers Unable To Access Mail Tiscali only realised that the problem existed yesterday according to reports, and a relevant message on the Tiscali UK service status page reads: "Tiscali customers using e-mail are unfortunately experiencing intermittent delays in sending and receiving e-mails. The majority of this backlog is now being cleared by our engineers, who will resolve the remainder of this issue imminently. Tiscali sincerely apologises for any inconvenience caused." It is unclear what the nature of the problem is or how many Tiscali subscribers have been affected by the glitch. Tiscali are currently undertaking a multi-million pound advertising campaign to promote the new Tiscali 10.0 service. Incumbents Drive Broadband Europe While Competition Languishes The study shows the increase was driven primarily by incumbent operator deployments and aggressive marketing campaigns rather than by competition from alternative operators. At the end of 2001, in most Western European countries, broadband access was available to at least 50% of homes and businesses, and on average 4% of homes and 8% of business sites paid for broadband connections. IDC predicts that the overall market will grow in value from $2 billion at the end of 2001, to around $24 billion by the end of 2006. "Broadband usage and awareness are definitely on the rise in Europe. However, the local loop unbundling process is simply too complex and politically problematic to create a competitive broadband access market within a reasonable timeframe," said Jill Finger, Research Manager for IDC's European Telecoms Service. "This is evident in the fact that incumbent operators have majority market share of broadband connections in most countries even with local loop unbundling supposedly in place. In this tough economic climate for the telecoms sector, the solution to the competitive access conundrum lies elsewhere, in options such as fair wholesale network access." Teacher Wins "Friends Reunited" Settlement Jonathon Spencer had written that Murray had previously been sacked as a teacher for remarks he made about female students and for an alleged assault in which he is accused of strangling a pupil. Murray's victory is reported as being the first of its kind in the UK, having successfully sued for damages relating to comments posted by an individual as opposed to the publisher. Murray is unhappy with the settlement amount according to other reports, however the case may set a precedent for future cases involving the reunion site. Source: Silicon Enhanced Internet Messaging Software Eliminates Spam The unique anti-spam capabilities of the IM software allows unwanted mail collected from external POP/IMAP accounts to be removed before reaching the user’s inbox. Gordano President Brian Dorricott commented: "GLWebMail XT’s individual anti-spam filters and its unique patent-pending confirmation process stops unwanted email and reduces the risk of accidental deletion of legitimate messages. "Gordano’s anti-spam features are a breakthrough for modern messaging because for the first time, individual users are empowered to eliminate unsolicited mail from their inbox.” GLWebMail XT provides email confirmation for Gordano’s GLWebMail and can also protect inboxes accessed using standard POP3 & IMAP4 mail clients such as Microsoft’s Outlook, Qualcomm’s Eudora, Pegasus and many others. To find out more information, please click HERE. ISPA UK Announces New Council And Chairperson The ISPA was established in 1995 as a trade association to represent Internet Services Providers in the UK. Jessica Hendrie-Liaño, Company Lawyer from Freeserve has been elected as the Chair of ISPA Council after joining the ISPA Council as an elected member in March 2001. Hendrie-Liaño explained, “ISPA represents providers of Internet services and the ISPA Council is selected from the membership. The diversity of ISPA members’ interests is reflected in the ISPA Council, which represents small, medium, and large companies including ISPs, content providers, broadband suppliers, application providers, telcos, domain name registries and exchanges. This new Council provides a strong base for ISPA to continue its work and remain the UK’s leading Internet trade association.” The full ISPA Council for 2002-2003 are as follows: Emma Ascroft, Manager, Political Liaison, Cable & Wireless BTopenworld Extends Free Line Activation Offer Now the carrot has once again been dangled in front of Internet users with BTopenworld extending their broadband promotion for businesses and consumers. When the ISP launched its self-install broadband services in March it ran a promotion waiving the line activation charge of £65 for customers signing up before the end of May. Now this has been extended until the end of August saving customers the £65 fee. The promotional offer is on its Home 500 and Business 500 Plug & Go broadband products. Alison Ritchie, CEO, BTopenworld, said, "The response to our new Plug & Go broadband products has been really strong. In our first week we tripled the number of consumer orders. Added to this, SME business orders have increased by 66 per cent week on week. By extending the activation offer we hope to encourage even more customers to sign up during the summer months. For businesses and consumers there is no better time to get a high speed, always-on connection to the Internet." Customers who respond to the renewed offer will only pay the equipment charges (£85 for a modem and two filters from BTopenworld) and then the monthly subscription fee of £29.99 (All prices for home products are inc. VAT and for business products ex. VAT). Mail Servers Back Online After 18-Hour Outage The fault, caused by a corrupted mailbox, took the servers offline around 11am yesterday. Although there had been a "significant number" of customers affected, a BTopenworld spokesman said that not all BTclick customers were affected. "We are currently looking at what happened to see if there is any way this fault could be avoided," the spokesman said. He was expecting a backlog, but expected the service to be back to normal by this afternoon. Source: Vnunet.com BT Director Snaps Up Company’s Shares Mr Livingston, who joined from electrical retailer Dixons last month, bought 110,444 BT shares at 271.63p. The move triggers a matching payment of £300,000-worth of shares from BT and comes just days after the group showed its recovery was on track. BT posted a jump in fourth-quarter profits in its annual results last Thursday and returned to the dividend list. The telecoms group also awarded Mr Livingston a further £1.35 million shares in line with his contract. Source: Ananova Freeserve Attacks Oftel Over BT Broadband The accusation comes from Freeserve who yesterday reacted angrily to Oftel's decision to allow BT Retail to charge for its no-frills Internet access product on the 'blue bill' it sends out to its telephone customers. Freeserve said in a statement: "This fait accompli has been achieved without any industry consultation and with no apparent safeguards in place." "The blue bill, which supports BT's near-monopoly fixed-line phone business, is not available at wholesale and as such is a privilege of BT and BT alone." "This is a clear example of BT being allowed by the regulator to leverage a dominant market position in fixed line telephony to establish a position in broadband." It said: "Oftel has used this piece of old news to bury in its press release the fact that it has gifted to BT the anti-competitive advantage of using its blue bill to charge for its own broadband service." An Oftel spokesman justified the decision, "Oftel has recognised that it is important to update and clarify the position on billing and marketing for BT retail. There are two main points in the release and I don't think it's fair to say that we have buried anything." Source: Silicon.com Bland Says Bonfield Had No Future With BT The Register reports that the appointment of a new CEO was part of a "To Do" list that was drawn up by Bland and he informed the Sunday Telegraph that it was "something that was always going to happen." Bonfield announced his intentions to leave the company in October 2001 and actually left a year earlier than planned in January 2002 being replaced by Ben Verwaayen. Bland also commented in the interview that he is committed to broadband and also rejected suggestions that BT may split its network. Source: The Register Oftel Publishes Statement Of Policy On BT's Marketing Of Internet Services In accordance with the statement, BT will not be allowed to use detailed information contained in residential customers’ bills in order to target its Internet access services to particular customers, as no other operator has access to this information and Oftel is likely to view use of this information as anti-competitive. However, general BT call centre advisers on retail channels such as 150 will be allowed promote and sell BT Internet Service Provision services on in-bound and out-bound calls and the telco can use its residential ‘blue bill’ to charge for its new ‘BT Broadband’ service. BT sales staff will be subject to strict procedures to ensure that they comply with these rules and Oftel Oftel will closely monitor BT’s compliance, and will review the situation after six months. David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications, said: "Internet services in the UK are now growing rapidly. There are around 600,000 users of broadband, and sales by BT, ntl and Telewest are running at around 20,000 per week. Narrowband services also continue to grow: four million UK consumers are using unmetered access packages." "Oftel wants to see fair competition across the market. This means that BT’s competitors must be sure that BT is complying with competition law and its licence. We have published clear procedures on BT’s marketing of Internet services and use of joint billing to ensure BT does not act anti-competitively." The statement confirmed that Oftel would invoke tougher procedures if there are breaches in compliance with the statement of policy. To read the statement in full, please click HERE. BTclick Servers Hit By 'Rogue Mailbox' "Engineers are unable to tell what the problem is at present, although the theory is that a rogue mailbox somehow managed to remove access to both the main servers and their back-ups," a spokeswoman for the company said. BT said that engineers were re-installing software and it had hoped the servers would be back online by close of business, although at 5.30pm, the spokeswoman said that the problem may not be fixed until the following day. BTclick's helpdesk has been flooded with calls about the fault, although at this point technical engineers were able to provide no further information. Source: Vnunet.com BT In Possible £1bn Bid For Colt It is believed that BT chief executive Ben Verwaayen is interested in Colt's network, focused on 32 European cities, to bolt onto his loss-making Ignite operation. The idea is understood to have been discussed at board level over the past few weeks and well-placed sources said BT may hold informal talks with Colt's chief executive Peter Manning this summer. If BT were to pounce, it would mark the end of its troubled restructuring phase, when the company was forced to cut costs, demerge its mobile arm and sell off property and Yellow Pages to reduce debt. Source: Independent on Sunday Increase In Complaints About Premium Rate SMS Services The report shows that in February and March, 179 complaints were made concerning SMS premium rate 'services' - such as chat and competition offerings - compared to just 20 in January. ICSTIS Chairman Sir Peter North commented: "Our Report shows that most of the 12 million or so calls made to services each week don't cause problems and that there is a high level of compliance among the vast majority of companies in this dynamic and innovative industry." "However, the Report also shows that when problems do arise, we do not hesitate to take swift, tough action against the companies concerned. Consumers can continue to help us eliminate bad practice by reporting concerns to us on our free helpline - 0800 500212." Despite the vast rise, relatively, complaints are low, as ICSTIS estimates that 615m calls are made to premium rate services every year. Copies of the Report are available from the Secretariat and may also be accessed on the ICSTIS website HERE. German Media Giant Buys Napster "We're happy to see Napster move forward with Konrad Hilbers at the helm. We are very committed to providing artists the best possible distribution opportunities for their work, and to provide consumers more choice and control." Having both previously resigned, the CEO of Napster, Konrad Hilbers, together with Shawn Fanning, the creator of Napster, will now stay with the company. Source: Silicon Latest List Of ADSL Exchanges The following 15 exchanges are from a list of 100 announced earlier last month by BT Broadband, which are all expected to go live by the end of the month. Blunsdon Blandford Dalgety Bay East Bay Elgin Lymington Midsomer Norton Oswestry Oxted Penicuick St Andrews Torquay Wickersley Chester South Wolverampton Central BT Urges Business To Adopt Broadband The company made the comments at the first of a series of summits it is holding, to persuade more companies to make the switch to broadband. But some businesses said that BT itself had been one of the main reasons for the slow take-up of the technology. The UK still lags behind many of its European neighbours in broadband take-up with less than 3% of homes and businesses connected. Admitting that the initial rollout of broadband "hadn't been a success" BT's head of business internet services Tony Harris urged companies to take advantage of high-speed connections or lose competitiveness. "There has never been a better time for small businesses to connect to broadband," he told delegates at the summit in London. To help persuade the UK's 1.2 million small businesses to get a broadband connection, BT unveiled a series of initiatives. This included a payment plan for satellite broadband which would enable small businesses or sole traders in remote connections to spread the cost of having satellite installed over two or three years. Broadband and business 93% of UK businesses have less than 20 employees Less than 3% of SMEs have ADSL Less than 1% of SMEs have a satellite broadband connection Lack of awareness is biggest barrier BTopenworld also plans to donate £1 million to community groups and selected businesses in deprived areas, offering access and equipment free of charge. It also wants to create a Broadband Ambassadors Programme, awarded to businesses prepared to evangelise the benefits of broadband in their region. Ubiquitous Speaking at the summit, Professor Richard Scase - author of 'Britain in 2010' - said that switching small businesses to broadband could have wider benefits for the whole economy. "More people will be able to work from home which would have major implications on the transport system," he said. Anyone who has tried to get broadband will tell you that the biggest barrier is BT Gavin Robertson, MusicIndie And he predicted that 40% of small businesses would be connected to broadband by 2005. IT Manager from loss adjusters Davies & Co Nilesh Patel described his firm's experience of moving to broadband. "It gave us the potential to save two hours per day in dead travel and brought a 40% reduction on office phone bills," he said. "Within 18 months broadband will be as ubiquitous as the mobile phone," he added. BT under fire Not everyone at the conference was so optimistic. Gavin Robertson, managing director of MusicIndie said that if BT was looking to remove barriers to broadband it did not have to look far. "Anyone who has tried to get broadband will tell you that the biggest barrier is BT," he said. "I'm astonished that BT can stand up and take credit for connections so far when a latent market has been screaming for broadband for years," he added. Confusion Other audience members agreed that security issues, service level agreements and the problem of having to switch ISP (internet service provider) were all barriers that BT needed to address. Representative from Hackney Chamber of Commerce Denzil Cummings said many of the small businesses in his jurisdiction were still "incredibly confused" about ADSL, both in terms of whether they could get the technology and what benefits it would bring. In an audience vote, 46% cited lack of understanding as the main barrier to broadband take-up, while 19% cited cost, and 11% availability. Since launching its Plug & Go ADSL service in March, BTopenworld has connected 44,000 homes and businesses to broadband. SOURCE: BBC AOL Ditch Internet Explorer In Favour Of Netscape In an email to developers, the company said AOL for Mac OS X version 2 featured an integrated Netscape browser. The company is also said to be testing a Netscape version of its flagship AOL product. Version 7.0 is due for release later this year. The move has been long predicted and should not have any far reaching implications for either AOL or Microsoft, said Jupiter analyst Dan Stevenson. While Microsoft will lose AOL's 25 million US subscribers, it should hold ground in Europe where AOL has six million users. Source: Silicon.com Ananova Goes Mobile The email alert service will finally come to an end on May 20th in readiness for the new mobile replacement due to start on May 28th. Ananova was launched in April 2000 and acquired by the mobile operator Orange a few months later in July 2000. All the news, sport, business and entertainment subjects will still be available. Ananova will send a text message the moment a story breaks and subscribers will be able to listen to the news bulletin on their Orange phone, and see their personal page on the Orange web and WAP sites. News by text message will cost 12p per message and calls to listen to personal news bulletins read by Ananova can be heard at a cost of 20p per minute. Normal network costs apply for accessing subscribers’ personal pages on WAP. Microsoft Deny Changes To Default Privacy Settings But the company conceded that some services require that it share users' e-mail addresses with other sites that participate in its Passport service. Several MSN Hotmail users have complained in the discussion forums after discovering that their Web mail accounts had been configured to share their e-mail addresses and other registration information with third-party sites that use the Passport system. A Microsoft spokeswoman said MSN has made no changes to its privacy policy or practices regarding the protection of users' personal information. "MSN has never changed its users' preferences. While consumers can certainly update their preferences at any time, once they've set an option to ‘no,’ it remains ‘no,’" said the representative. The Microsoft representative did not immediately have information about whether Passport accounts created in the past automatically enabled sharing of users' e-mail addresses with participating sites. A page for signing up for a new Passport today listed ‘Share my e-mail address’ as an option, with such sharing disabled by default. Hotmail and other Passport users can confirm their privacy preferences by consulting a page entitled "Edit Your .NET Passport Profile," available from the "Options" tab within Hotmail, or from the front door of Passport.com. Source: Newsbytes BTopenworld Clears The Path To Broadband Business The new plans aim to remove barriers to uptake and educate the market on the benefits of the high-speed Internet. The ISP, which currently has the largest number of business broadband users in the UK, has divided its plans into several categories. Firstly, the company is donating 800 lines as part of a series of Internet-focused initiatives, worth over £1 million, over the next two years. A significant proportion of this will be dedicated to the promotion of broadband awareness and uptake. In an effort to bridge the digital divide, BTopenworld will equip community groups, and selected small businesses with broadband Internet access and equipment free of charge. To complement this, the company has created a Broadband Ambassadors Programme, awarded to businesses that can play a key role in evangelising the high speed Internet in their region or sector. In order to support businesses in non-ADSL enabled areas, the company has also announced a new rental option for satellite broadband, bringing in new contract terms, enabling customers to spread the up-front costs for satellite over two or three years. A move which research confirms will quadruple the number of customers taking up the service. Alison Ritchie, CEO of BTopenworld, said, "Despite real success in the area of broadband uptake over the last year, still under five per cent of Small and Medium Enterprises in the UK are taking advantage of this technology. We're committed to taking it up the curve from this point until it becomes as much a business utility as electricity and water. " The first stage of this process is to ensure that broadband is widely available. Our immediate plans are therefore to remove as many barriers to uptake as possible, be they down to geography, cost or lack of education." To gauge the progress of Broadband Britain, the company is also launching a quarterly 'Broadband Index' showing the rate of uptake among businesses across the UK. This will highlight the country's broadband hotspots, as well as the areas where greater education needs to take place. Heavy Internet Users Face The Boot Other resellers are also believed to be affected as the service is becoming over-subscribed. Many of our readers have been complaining over the poor quality or the inability to connect in the first place. Gio Internet in particular has been the brunt of many bad reviews. In the beginning the ISP was the best thing since sliced bread, now the majority of user reviews paint a clear picture of what life is like being one of their customers: “Absolutely Stinks !! Don't bother unless you want to wait until falling asleep before a connection happens....then fails, again and again and again...etc ...etc. If there was a no star rating they'd get it.”Hopefully with heavy users having their accounts terminated, the service could improve for remaining customers. Gio Internet users that are facing the boot are subscribers of the ‘Gio Universal 24/7’ package which is aimed at light users. According to the email received from Gio Internet, accounts are being terminated because of “excessive usage patterns” and that section 8.1(b) of their terms and conditions have been infringed. The quoted section of the terms and conditions state that the ISP will be entitled to terminate the contract immediately if there is “abuse of the system”. Also such abuse could be defined, but not limited to pinging of the service. As we see it, if the service is being used as advertised and no pinging has taken place, then heavy use of the service cannot be regarded as abuse. Looks like a case for the Advertising Standards Authority. Source: ISPreview UseNet Death Penalty Lifted However, a probationary period of 30 days has been implemented, and the situation will be closely monitored. Below is an updated statement by the proponent of the UDP in news.admin.net-abuse.policy as published on the blueyonder Web site: "All of the open proxies which were discussed under this UDP proposal and call are either secured or unable to access news.blueyonder.co.uk, the conditions for lifting the called UDP have been met. That three of the proxies remain open at this late date remains a concern, but I fully expect these, too, will be secured or disabled within the next business day in the UK. With no traffic propagating from news-binary.blueyonder.co.uk, the remedial action sought through this UDP has been achieved. As the purpose of the UDP is to seek remedy, rather than as a punitive action, the called active Usenet Death Penalty is being lifted. It will remain up to those providers upstream of BY, as to whether they wish to re-establish those outbound news feeds which are being null routed. While this Usenet Death Penalty is lifted, a probationary period of 30 days is being imposed. Should major increases in the volume of Usenet abuse begin to show a significant upward swing, the active UDP may be initiated at any time, without further discussion or notice, within this probationary period. It is sincerely hoped that Telewest Communications PLC will continue be a conscientious and trusted member of the Usenet community. "Our abuse tools are being beefed up, as we do not wish to be in this situation again. The tools we have built to enable us to have the UDP lifted are being extended with a full range of further tools. A proposal document for these has been issued, and the priority of having these built is high. We'll keep you informed on these via the monthly service updates. Thanks for your patience while we were under threat of a UDP. The team at blueyonder To access the blueyonder statement, please click HERE. Net Security: New Critical Cumulative Patch For IE Given a maximum severity rating of "critical", those using Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01, 5.5, or 6.0 should download and install the patch immediately which also includes previous fix releases. To find out more, or to download the patch, please click HERE. PlusNet Announce Low-Cost Broadband Package Providing 512k download speeds, ADSL Home Surf is a low cost high-speed package that is competitively priced at £20.99 (inc. VAT) per month. The self-install product includes unlimited e-mail addresses, 25 MB Webspace and 24 hour, 7 days a week, local rate Technical Support. However, the high-speed package does not support file sharing (P2P), and subscribers are only allowed access to text-based groups on PlusNet's USENET service. Phil Sheard, Marketing Manager at PlusNet, commented: "By focusing on the requirements of the majority of Internet users, we have been able to bring a new price point to the UK market" "We have built a reputation for unrivalled value added services, we didn't want to remove this from this product. The fact is that ADSL Home Surf has more services than most other ISPs can offer on their premium services" There is a £58.75 (inc. VAT) activation fee for the product and those customers wishing to take out a monthly contract pay an extra £10 + VAT for activation. Alternatively, there is an option for subscribers to spread the activation fee across the first year's subscription. To find out further information on Home Surf from PlusNet, please click HERE. Microsoft Loses Appeal To Shut Down Lindows.com Judge Coughenour wrote in a seven page ruling that after "examining the evidence with a sharper focus" news articles, advertisements, competitors and dictionary definitions demonstrated that the "consuming public used the terms ’windows,’ ’window’ and ’windowing’ to refer to a type of graphical user interface." The judge also wrote that through “its own use of the evidence” Microsoft essentially admits that “windows” is a generic term. Microsoft had contended that the court had “reached an incorrect result” in an earlier ruling in which the court stated that Microsoft had raised "serious questions" about the validity of its windows trademark and refused to halt Lindows.com from using both Lindows.com and LindowsOS for its operating system name. "Microsoft pulled the pin on this grenade and the judge made them swallow it,” said Lindows.com, Inc., Chief Executive Officer Michael Robertson. “Our goal is to bring choice back to computers in spite of Microsoft's bullying tactics. If we have to go to trial where the word "windows" will be declared generic, we're prepared to do so." The final version of LindowsOS will go on sale later this year for one-third of the cost of Microsoft's offering. The complete ruling along with selected quotes from the document can be found at www.lindows.com/opposition. Opera Launches Opera 6.02 For Windows Opera 6.02 for Windows enhances many of the existing features, boosts speed, adds new integrated searches with eBay and Download.com in the Personal bar, and incorporates several improvements to the popular Opera 6 for Windows. Opera Software are also planning to incorporate an SMS (Short Messaging Service) panel, which lets users send text messages to mobile phones directly from the browser. This SMS module is currently available in Norway, and will expand to other countries in future releases of Opera. Opera 6.02 is available as a free ad-sponsored version or users may register a copy for $39. Those who have purchased a version of Opera 6.x or Opera 5.x are entitled to a free upgrade. Freeserve To Offer Music Subsciption Service The service, powered by On Demand Distribution (OD2), will offer music from artists signed to some of the world’s leading music labels, including BMG, Warner Music, Mushroom, Telstar, V2 and Ministry of Sound, along with tracks from many independent record labels. The new subscription services will launch on Freeserve in early summer with basic subscription packages starting at £5 per month. Customers will be offered a choice of options to suit their music and subscription preferences, including: - Subscription by genre - customers subscribe to a monthly play list comprised of music from a wide choice of genres. Tracks are refreshed at least once a month and can be streamed or downloaded at any time during a 30-day period - Personal play list - customers browse the entire catalogue of music. Tracks can either be streamed or downloaded and accessed for 30 days, after which customers update their collection with new tracks as old ones time out - Permanent downloads - customers select from an extensive catalogue of music and download tracks to portable music devices, such as MP3s players, or for burning up to one copy onto a CD. Music has been identified as a key component in the Wanadoo Group strategy to offer strongly branded combinations of high quality access and premium content through uncomplicated online payment solutions and leading retail distribution channels. BT Beats Debt And Profit Forecasts The telecoms giant proposed a final dividend of 2p per share as well as revealing that the company’s debt has dropped from £27.9bn to £13.7bn at the end of March. Although the forecasted target range was £15bn to £20bn. Meanwhile, BTopenworld saw a 40 per cent increase in turnover for the fourth quarter of £60 million over the same period last year. Turnover for the year was £222 million, 59 per cent higher than last year. The improvement is mainly due to growth in the new broadband products as well as the existing narrowband product range. BT Wholesale, which sells DSL based broadband products to other service providers, has signed up around 200 wholesale customers and, at the end of March, had connected 170,000 ADSL subscribers across this customer base. Demand for broadband ADSL has been stimulated by the introduction of new self-install products, substantially lower prices and increased marketing activity. As a result, BT Wholesale aims to reach 1 million ADSL subscribers by summer 2003. BT Wholesale had upgraded 1,010 exchanges for ADSL services by the end of March 2002. These exchanges serve 60 per cent of UK households (some 15 million homes) and 70 per cent of current Internet users in the UK. BT Wholesale plans to upgrade a further 100 exchanges by the end of May, which will increase broadband ADSL coverage to 66 per cent of the UK. Microsoft Convicted Of Software Piracy The court ruled awarded the damages and interest for violation of intellectual property because of the illegal inclusion of another company's proprietary source code in SoftImage 3D, an animation package. A report on the conviction was carried in the French paper, Le Monde Informatique. No technology magazine or Website cottoned on to the fact at the time. It was left to a Peruvian Congressman, Dr Edgar David Villanueva Nuñez, to raise this point in a letter to the general manager of Microsoft Peru, Juan Alberto González. Dr Nuñez was replying to a letter from Mr González wherein the latter had stated the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609, Free Software in Public Administration, passed by Peru. Within Dr Nuñez's reply was this paragraph: "Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. "The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on 27th September 2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of 3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity)." Source: TheRegister Service Provider Tiscali Manages To Break Even The Italy-based company, which recently launched a multimillion-pound television campaign to establish its brand in the UK, made core profits of £600,000 in the first quarter of this year. Its strategy of integrating the scores of small ISPs it bought around Europe, including LineOne, LibertySurf and World Online in the UK, and cutting costs accordingly appears to have paid off. Subscription revenues, which account for almost three | ||