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ClaraNET Launches Unmetered Access Packages The new ClaraNET packages make use of the FRIACO wholesale product from BT which allows the ISP to provide a high quality, sustainable service for its customers. The ISP provides a 24/7 unmetered product called FreeTime AnyTime for a flat rate of £14.99 per month. Users must be a BT telephone customer and check their telephone number with the ClaraNET site as the product is not yet available nationally. As well as unlimited email addresses and unrestricted newsgroup access, customers also receive unlimited access to their games servers as well as no restrictions to online services such as IRC, ICQ and Napster. Other accounts include: FreeTime Unlimited - £9.99 per monthIn addition to the unmetered accounts, there is also a 1p per minute deal like the offer from OneTel which is priced at £6.99 per month. Also for customers of other ISPs, ClaraNET has a Usenet package which provides unrestricted access to over 50,000 newsgroups. As well as full access, users also receive unlimited email addresses and access to a local rate tech support line. The Claranews account costs £29.99 per year. PIPEX Nominated As One Of UK’s Strongest E-Brands The Superbrands eCouncil, made up of leading figures in the Internet branding world, has selected PIPEX to be one of an exclusive group of 50 UK companies awarded with the prestigious title of 'eBrandLeader'. The Superbrands organisation is the independent authority on Internet-dedicated brands and ebranding issues, promoting the discipline of branding by paying tribute to exceptional brands. Mike Butcher, News Editor, The Industry Standard, remarked "Branding excellence is absolutely critical within the world of the Internet. It is only the strongest brands that can be confident of a positive future." David Rickards, Managing Director of PIPEX, commented, "Everyone at PIPEX is very proud of our brand heritage and to be awarded with the title 'eBrandLeader' is a supreme endorsement of our brand's exceptional status for our existing and potential investors, customers, suppliers, employees and the media". Unmetered Chaos Continues With Wonkypig We knew for a long time that BigBlueSky were reselling their service to Wonkypig who were in turn reselling to ItsGoodToGive, each ISP charging a higher subscription fee to its customers. We contacted Marc Warman from Wonkypig who blatantly lied to us by saying, “…we are not working with BBS but in fact BT and NTL.” Now on the site they have an announcement explaining why customers are experiencing difficulties connecting to the service with the last line saying, “Main Carrier provided by Big Blue Sky - www.bigbluesky.uk.net” Although yesterday they briefly had the following announcement, “Wonkypig Today Have reached 15,000 Internet users. Thank you to everyone for there support, the 0800 internet service will continue to operate at current levels of 15:1, new signups will be available to the next 10,000 new users from 5th July 2001.” I know the grammar and spelling is incorrect but that is how it appeared. Wonkypig now claim that there will be a “system outage” for 2-3 days while they are in discussions with another telco to continue the service after negotiations with BigBlueSky to “reconfigure the existing ports and add more” were unsuccessful. The announcement on the site also goes on to say that customers who registered and have not received their user details will be refunded in full. What about those who have received their details and have experienced connection problems? They have paid for an Internet service that doesn’t work. If I bought something that didn’t work I’ll be demanding a refund. Looks like it’s time to contact Trading Standards and the credit card company again. BigBlueSky Unmetered Access Comes To An End  Many customers have complained that they have been unable to connect to BigBlueSky. They either experienced constant engaged tones or their sign-up details were repeatedly rejected as the authentication software supplied to the ISP failed.A source within BT has said that the service is being shut down due to “large unbilled usage”. There have been many rumours about the service and reasons for the downfall of the unmetered access. We probably will not know for certain. All we can do is report on what we have been told. We are in contact with Lanarkshire Trading Standards who have been inundated with complaints from BigBlueSky customers. They have informed us that after meeting BigBlueSky they were told that the service has been oversubscribed and were unable to maintain the same level of service. They were looking to upgrade the number of ports available. Last Friday we were informed by the ISP that several hundred users were able to log in without the need for a username or password, this overloaded the system and genuine users of the service were unable to connect. For BigBlueSky to rectify the problem, they were to close the service until the following Monday. We have received reports from a few of our readers since Monday saying that they were able to connect briefly “on and off”, but for the majority of users the problem is still the same. All this time they were still accepting new customers which were adding to the situation, and with the multiple logins, new users who had just paid £35 for a years unmetered access were not able to connect. Now the managing director of BigBlueSky, David Singleton, has made the following statement on their site: Firstly, apologies to all our customers for the connection difficulties you have been experiencing.They have stopped accepting new customers. Instead they have a message saying that “the registration service is temporarily unavailable, please try again later”. With all the recent problems of not being able to connect and the pricing structure of the service, there have been all the usual rumours doing their rounds. Many other ISPs have come and gone such as RedHotAnt and EzeSurf who closed down after a few months. Now rumours are abound that BigBlueSky are on the verge of bankruptcy. Yesterday we managed to speak to the managing director of BigBlueSky, David Singleton, who told us that there was no truth in the bankruptcy rumours at all. He said, “I am not going to say that we will never go bankrupt, but we are not in financial difficulties. We are not going down if I have anything to do with it.” He added that they are looking for another telco after BT refused to provide extra ports for their service. Singleton added that BigBlueSky have achieved a lot for such a small ISP in the Internet market and other major players may perceive them as being a threat. BigBlueSky have big plans for re-launching their service, but until they can find another telco their unmetered service will be replaced with a ‘pay-as-you-go’ style local rate dial-up service. Trading Standards told us that prior to the recent connection problems, they had only received one complaint since BigBlueSky launched earlier in the year. At the moment they are collecting complaints and will try to obtain refunds for those customers who have signed up recently and feel they may be entitled. They can be reached on 01698 452 487. Some credit card companies may be able to refund customers’ accounts, but we do not think they are legally obliged to as the amount is under £100. We suggest you contact your card company for advice. Although many customers have been lucky and have already had their money’s worth out of the service. Just whether another unmetered service will emerge in a few weeks time, we don’t know. But they are mistaken if they think their customers will continue to stay with them on a free 0845 service - they will just move onto another unmetered provider. If BigBlueSky were to re-launch their unmetered service would you come back for more? PlusNet Launches Corporate Internet Solutions Division  Alistair Wyse, Product and Service Development Director said, “Business today demands more of their Internet access; highlighting the need for speed and reliability surpassing that of traditional dial-up or ISDN connectivity.”PlusNet’s Corporate Solutions include: • A range of dedicated leased line solutions of sizes and budgets suitable for both SME’s and large corporate organisations.Wyse continued, “Whatever the choice of solution, having room for growth is essential. PlusNet’s Internet solutions are fully scalable and will both meet your expectations today and grow with you as your business demands increase.” PlusNet’s list of corporate clients include; Sheffield City Council, CSL, Dialogue Communications, Department for Education and Employment and Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. Tiscali To Launch Two-Way Satellite Access In Europe The service will offer always-on, high-speed Internet access to consumer markets and small office/home office (SOHO) users throughout Europe. Tiscali is one of Europe's largest and fastest-growing Internet communication companies. Gilat is a worldwide leader in satellite networking technology. Under the agreement, Gilat will serve as the wholesale provider of Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) satellite communications equipment and operations support for the service. Tiscali has started a trial of the new, two-way satellite Internet service with selected numbers of users to launch a commercial service in the Autumn. The service is expected to be available all over Europe by the end of the year. Powered by Gilat technology, Tiscali's two-way satellite service will exceed the geographic limitations of xDSL-based technology by reaching areas not wired for high-speed telephone connections in Europe. The service will also provide customers with the ability to download rich media, audio and video. Tiscali expects the new service to offer users Internet access speeds up to 10 times higher than normal modem speeds in Europe. Two-way satellite service offers significant benefits for consumers, including a persistent or “always on” connection that saves time when connecting to the Internet and eliminates the need for a telephone line dedicated for Internet use. The service will also support multi-PC connectivity for SOHOs in Europe. Mario Mariani, Tiscali's Senior Vice President, International Business to Consumer Division said, “It further demonstrates that Tiscali is dedicated to providing a wide range of network access choices to its customers, whether they are at home, work or on the move. Satellite access will also give us independence from incumbent telecommunications operators in Europe and will enable us to develop products and services of higher value and competitive price.'' Tiscali expects to announce pricing and performance immediately before the commercial launch of the service. Telewest Launches Summer Marketing Campaign The £2.5 million campaign will run throughout July, August, September and October and will enhance existing marketing activity for the company’s blueyonder broadband Internet service. An outdoor poster campaign will announce that ‘no speed restrictions apply,’ while a wider range of advertisements will give light-hearted examples of what that speed enables. Chad Raube, head of marketing for Internet services, explained, “We are experiencing strong demand for blueyonder but we want to raise awareness further. We also want to use some insightful examples of everyday Internet usage to characterise the excitement of broadband in general.” Telewest, the broadband communications and media group, currently provides multi-channel television and internet services to more than 1.7 million UK households, and voice and data telecommunications services to over 67,000 business customers. Easynet In Broadband Merger With Ipsaris Founded in 1994, Easynet will acquire ipsaris in exchange for 82.9 million Easynet shares. The merger will value the group at approximately £475 million. The merger will create a leading network-based provider of broadband services to business customers in the UK, France and other selected European countries. It will also combine Easynet’s sales force, customer base, IP networking skills and established sales-led business model with ipsaris’ network assets, IT systems and engineering skills. David Rowe, Chairman and Chief Executive of Easynet, commented, “The merger of Easynet and ipsaris has compelling strategic and financial logic. The complementary strengths of Easynet and ipsaris will enable the enlarged group to accelerate our strategy of delivering broadband services to business customers. I am very excited about the potential for Easynet's future growth and success.” The Enlarged Group, which will retain the Easynet name, will be building on Easynet’s 27,100 existing business customers, of which approximately 7,000 are DSL customers, and ipsaris' network which, when completed later this year, will consist of 3,500 route kilometres of fibre cable and approximately 350,000 kilometres of optical fibres. Neil Rafferty, Chief Executive of ipsaris, added, “This merger is a value-enhancing strategic combination that significantly accelerates the development of both companies.” BT Asks “Where Are The Customers For LLU?” BT Wholesale said it was able to take any order for access to its local phone lines. Demand had evaporated however. John Davies, chief operations officer for BT Wholesale said, "Where are the customers? We are open for business for all operators who judge there to be demand for their products." There have been months of concentrated activity in BT's local exchanges and extensive discussions with other operators and with Oftel, the telecommunications regulator, about the details and specifications of the work needed to open BT's local lines to other operators. The operators want access to BT's exchanges to provide their customers with service without going to the expense of building their own networks. John Davies said, "BT Wholesale has spent more than £15m doing done all the huge amount of preparatory work needed and now has the base infrastructure and the delivery processes in place. Give us your order and we will deliver it!" Demand has declined since work on the project started last year, December when market sentiment ran high in the telecom sector. Initially more than 40 operators claimed they wanted access to BT's local exchanges to compete for customers: now only nine operators are still active. Originally operators said they wanted to move in to 2,100 of BT's exchanges: now they want access to only 202. John Davies said, "Demand has collapsed to a tiny proportion of those originally interested. As the telecommunications sector came under financial pressure, other operators - our customers - found it harder to justify to their shareholders the capital expenditure required. Instead they bought network capacity rather than built." BT however was confident that there would be volume demand for local loop unbundling products when the telecom sector recovered and was continuing to invest in further automation of the delivery processes. Oftel Announces Further Measures To Support LLU  Oftel’s measures are designed to enable operators to install equipment more quickly and offer high speed services to consumers over unbundled loops.David Edmonds, Director General of Oftel, said today, "These measures bring further improvements to the unbundling process. In response to operators’ requests Oftel proposes that, subject to certain safeguards, they should be able to install equipment in any operational area within BT exchanges.” The four measures proposed today are: • following an operator’s request, a requirement on BT to install operators’ equipment in any operational part of a BT exchange. Operators consider that co-mingling, as it is known, could lead to significant savings on costs and time for installation of equipment;David Edmonds said the unbundling process is in place and operators can order unbundling facilities at any BT exchange they choose. "The EC Regulation on unbundling the local loop and the LLU condition inserted into BT’s licence in April 2000 set out the regulatory framework. The measures announced today clarify and enforce the regulatory requirements for unbundling to help operators roll out their services to consumers.” Although Oftel, BT and the industry have worked hard to put in place the process for local loop unbundling, the number of sites where operators have installed equipment is less than originally anticipated. BT have already handed over 15 sites for distant co-location with a further 94 sites ordered by operators. David Edmonds stressed that operators had to make their own commercial decisions whether to pursue unbundling. He added, "Local loop unbundling is one of the most complex pieces of regulation that Oftel has undertaken in recent years, as it has proved to be in all countries where unbundling has taken place. "Oftel has put the process in place and will ensure that the rules are complied with. Operators must make their own commercial decisions over whether unbundling is the route they wish to use to provide high speed services to consumers.” NTL Breaks Down The Barriers To Broadband  NTL residential customers in the North West will become the first in the world to be able to receive high-speed broadband Internet services by simply connecting their digital cable set-top box, which features an embedded cable modem, to their personal computer wherever it is in the home. No additional hardware is required. Over 500,000 UK homes already have an NTL digital cable set-top box with the embedded cable modem in it and interest in buying broadband services is high. Over 8000 customers in Manchester have pre-registered for the service – even ahead of the local marketing campaign that launches next week. This break-through broadband access service allows NTL digital customers to enjoy download speeds of up to 512kbps. It also offers always-on functionality and, unlike a standard modem, doesn’t tie up your telephone line while you’re connected to the Internet. Stephen Carter, NTL’s Managing Director, comments, "We’ve invested to gain scale and network superiority. Now we’re able to offer our customers the most exciting combination of communications and entertainment services for the home that’s available today. Our new service is quite simply second to none." Prices for the new broadband service are in line with NTL’s existing market-driving monthly subscription rate of £24.99 for DigitalPlus customers. Installation costs between £17.50 and £100, depending on whether the customer chooses to ‘do-it-yourself’ or prefers an all-inclusive option. NTL’s ‘triple-play’ bundle of digital cable TV, standard telephone line rental and broadband Internet costs £39.98 per month. Standard prices for just broadband access amongst NTL’s competitors range between £40 and £50 per month. NTL plans to roll out the new easy-access broadband service across the UK with launches in Leeds and London planned for later this year. PIPEX To Launch New RADSL Service In addition to the current ADSL service from PIPEX, the new RADSL Home Professional service goes live on 18th July 2001. However ADSL is a distance-sensitive technology. As the connection's line increases in length, the signal quality decreases and the connection speed goes down. Until now, customers outside the 3.5km DSL enabled exchange radius were unable to gain access to the service. The PIPEX RADSL service is designed to allow more customers to receive the PIPEX Home Professional service by extending the current range of ADSL from 3.5km to 5.5km. With RADSL, user coverage around DSL enabled exchanges is increased to over 90% availability. RADSL adapts to differing line conditions and distances by adjusting upstream speeds automatically from a maximum of 256Kbps down to a minimum of 64 Kbps. This is done via the modem which scans the DSL line for the fastest upstream connection available, i.e. it adapts itself to take advantage of the fastest accessible rate. The downstream speed remains constant at up to 512Kbps. The PIPEX RADSL Home Professional service will be charged at the same rate as the ADSL Home Professional service. For £49.99 (ex VAT) a month, plus a one-off installation charge of £160, users can take advantage of the high speed, 'always on' unmetered access offered by broadband connectivity. David Rickards, Managing Director of PIPEX commented, "For those customers who have previously been disappointed at their inability to have ADSL access due to poor line quality or distance from an enabled exchange, RADSL could be the solution they have been looking for". He continued, "With PIPEX xDSL services, users can combine the speed of local broadband access with the world's fastest network, backed up by a service provider recognised for delivering high performance, reliable connectivity solutions". Currently only available with the PIPEX Home Professional 500 service, there are plans to extend RADSL to the Business 500 service in the near future. For further information on PIPEX's xDSL connectivity solutions visit their website at www.dsl.pipex.net Latest Update On BigBlueSky BigBlueSky said they were taking the service off-line until they had sorted out a problem caused by 490 users who were using multiple connections which made it virtually impossible for other users to connect. There was also a problem with authenticating users and give them an error message saying their details were incorrect.The service was due to reappear yesterday (Monday) although only a small handful of users have said they managed to connect at all in the past week or more. We have tried to contact BigBlueSky, but as yet we have not received any reply from our email. Instead today they have made the following update on their site: Following the connection problems that our subscribers have been experiencing over the past week, we have had to make adjustments to our ports. Along with new subscribers, serial misuse of the service by multiple logins has contributed to the problem.Maybe tomorrow we will be in a position to give you an update. Hopefully the need to wait for the CEO’s arrival is not bad news. Madasafish Announce New Unmetered Packages  Brightview, the new owners of Madasafish said they are competing against Freeserve’s current pricing levels with the new unmetered packages and will also be providing improved service levels. Next month Madasafish will be launching a 24/7 account priced at £12.99 per month and an off-peak account offering unmetered access between 6pm and 8am Monday to Friday and all weekend for £10.99 per month. Managing Director of Brightview Limited, David Laurie, said that their recent purchase of Madasafish will improve the infrastructure of the ISP including the helpline, billing etc., yet will retain its special identity and content of the ISP. The new unmetered packages will be provided by their new Telco partner British Telecom using their BTWebport wholesale product and will only be available to BT customers. AOL Exceeds 30 Million Customers Worldwide  Steve Case, chairman of AOL Time Warner, said, "We couldn't be more pleased to have surpassed the historic milestone of 30 million AOL members worldwide in 12 short years. Thanks to our members, we have built the world's most popular online service, which has helped to improve the lives of millions around the world. But we are not resting on our laurels; we will continue to strive to make AOL all it can be and to build a medium that we all can be proud of." Barry Schuler, America Online's chairman and chief executive officer, said, "Reaching the 30 million-member mark highlights AOL's leadership in the Internet's global emergence as the newest mass medium. This tremendous expansion underscores how central the interactive medium is becoming to everyday life around the world and the increasing value that the AOL service delivers.” America Online expects this year's launch of its next-generation AOL 7.0 service and the continued rollout of AOL Anywhere initiatives to bring new convenience to its members' lives and to drive the future growth of the service. Based on member feedback, AOL 7.0 was designed to deliver a new level of convenience, ease-of-use and benefits that will make the service even more central to their lives. The new software will offer a new look and feel, more localized experience, breakthrough broadband and narrowband programming, advances in online music, You've Got Pictures 2.0, and enhancements to core features like AOL Mail, Buddy List(r), and instant messaging. AOL membership outside the US now exceeds six million members. Last month, AOL Latin America's membership surpassed 750,000, and the AOL service in France topped the million-member milestone. Outside of the US, there now are AOL services in 16 countries in eight languages. UK Leads Europe And USA For E-Commerce Of the eight countries included in the survey (UK, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the US), the UK had the highest percentage of home Internet users visiting an e-commerce website in May. In the UK, 75.9% of all home Internet users visited an e-tailing website, with 42.1% going on to make a secure connection on a site. In the US, 73.9% of home Internet users visited an e-commerce site, with just 28.8% making a secure connection. Amazon was the number one e-commerce site in Europe last month, visited by more than 2.5 million unique visitors. Lastminute.com was the only travel site to make it into the top ten, visited by more than one million unique visitors in Europe. Affinity Owned ISP Launches New Unmetered Accounts The purchase of the ISP by Affinity Internet Holdings was made just two weeks ago. Already the company has provided breathe customers with 2 new unmetered products; ‘breathe unlimited’ and ‘breathe at home’. As the name suggests, ‘breathe unlimited’ provides unlimited access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for £12.99 per month and has a 2 hour cut-off period. But for the first 10,000 applicants who signup before the end of July, they will receive 2 months free. The ‘breathe at home’ account provides unmetered access between 4pm and 8am Monday to Friday and all weekend. This is priced at £8.99 per month and also has a 2 hour cut-off period. At other times access is charged as a local rate call. The first 10,000 applicants who signup before the end of July will receive 1 month free. The new unmetered accounts are provided by Virtual Internet Provider Limited which is a subsidiary of Affinity Internet. New AnyTime Customers Sought By LineOne  The ISP and portal LineOne, which was purchased by Tiscali in April for £62 million, has started to email its customers inviting them to participate in the initial launch of LineOne AnyTime.The 24/7 unmetered product has been trialled by a few selected LineOne customers for some time. The FRIACO-based AnyTime service is priced at £14.99 per month. Only last week over a hundred customers received notices to cut back on their Internet usage or risk having their accounts terminated. LineOne stated that users should be spending a maximum of nine hours per week on the SurfTime off-peak service. BTinternet In Anytime Promotion  BTinternet will be sending out 460,000 special CD-ROM’s to a selected audience as part of their direct mail campaign. In addition, postcards will be posted to a further 60,000 recipients inviting them to ring 0800 328 4991 to obtain a disk. The CD’s carry a one month free trial.The campaign is being supported by “out-bound telemarketing activity” that aims to contact 100,000 of those who received the mailing, with the intention of generating 15,000 new BTinternet Anytime registrations. The offer closes on 31st July. BTinternet Anytime offers 24/7 unmetered access for £14.99 per month. Unmetered Customers Landed With £500 Telephone Bill  According to ZDNet, the Freeserve customer was unaware that he had to use the six-digit prefix. "Freeserve has admitted that this prefix was not displayed anywhere on the site or on any paperwork, and unless you had prior knowledge of call charges, there was no way of knowing that this prefix was to be used," he told ZDNet.In the configuration instructions for the Freeserve Anytime product there is no mention of the prefix number. Although there is a warning to follow the instructions carefully, "it is essential that you carefully read and follow all three steps on this page, or you risk being charged for your Internet calls (for which Freeserve cannot be held responsible)". The ZDNet article quoted a lawyer at the Consumers’ Association as saying that the small print used in contracts must be legible and in plain English or the contract is deemed to be unenforceable. If this is the case with Freeserve then the customer may be eligible for compensation. Source: ZDNet Consumers’ Site Exposes Credit Card Details The problem affected around 2,000 of its customers who bought who bought tax calculation software from its TaxCalc site. Details including customers’ telephone numbers and addresses were also exposed in the security flaw. Kim Lavely, deputy director of the Consumers' Association said, "We are contacting all customers that have bought TaxCalc from this site informing them their personal and financial details have been compromised. As soon as we were made aware of the flaw, we removed all personal and financial details from the TaxCalc site.” Back in 1999 the Consumers' Association, publishers of Which? magazine, set up the Which? Web Trader scheme because they believed online shopping should be easy and safe. Members of the scheme had to pass a series of tests to prove that they reached a high standard which would ensure traders are treated fairly when shopping online. The lapse in security will undoubtedly be a major embarrassment for an organisation which has done so much to boost the confidence of online shoppers. Lavely added, "We have already commissioned an independent security expert to conduct a thorough audit of the security of this site," she said. "The TaxCalc site will remain shut until this problem is resolved." BigBlueSky Announce Essential Downtime Many customers have been unable to connect in the past few days and has prompted many rumours about the closure of BigBlueSky. We have been informed that there is no truth in the rumours whatsoever. Instead the connection problems have in fact been caused by abusers.Over the past 10 days there has been some serious abuse by nearly 500 users. We are aware of the details but will leave it for the team at BigBlueSky to sort out during the next few days. Such abuse has taken up more than 80% of the ports leaving less than 20% available for existing customers. Heavy usage of the service is not the cause of the abuse. A 2 hour cut-off period is imposed for heavy users to allow other customers a chance of logging in. Hopefully the problems will be rectified by Monday. Besides, the weather forecast is too nice to stay in this weekend. Totalise To Launch Unmetered Access Totalise expect to introduce a 24/7 unmetered service from 1st August priced at £14 per month. The package also includes a short term share offer which will appeal to existing share holders. The package will combine a level of free telephone calls based on a minimum monthly spend on a Totalise Telecom account. Users who are interested in joining an unmetered package will need to join Totalise Telecom first and can do so in advance of the launch. When the packages become available they will then be activated within just a few hours from a user informing us that they wish to purchase a Totalise package. The 24/7 package has a 2 hour cut-off period and also has a 0800 support line to help users switch to the package. This will be for a limited period of time following commencement of the package after which they may charge for support calls. Anyone interested about the packages can register their email address at www.totalisetelecom.net/unmetered Unmetered Registration Goes Live At Sniff Out But as the Sniff Out accounts use FRIACO, unfortunately only BT customers are accepted. Here is the range of unmetered products: Sniff Out PeakTime - £11.99 per monthIf you have signed up to Sniff Out we would all like to hear how you get on with the internet service as well as the customer service. OCM Goes Into Liquidation The service notified users of incoming calls whilst connected to the Internet, without the need for a second telephone line. It was also capable of diverting the call to other fixed or mobile telephones as well as being able to take the call through your PC and allow you to keep surfing. Just what will happen with the service we do not know, but it would be a disappointment for its many users if a company never came forward to take took over the operation of the OCM service. Are there any OCM users here who are affected by the company’s liquidation? Supanet Launch Supervised Children’s Chat Room  Supanet has created supachat, a safe Internet chat room for children. Here they can have fun and communicate with each other under fully monitored conditions that can swiftly identify and eradicate unwanted users or activity. In a recent poll run by Supanet, a staggering 60% of parents, admitted worrying about protecting their children from the dangers currently tarnishing the Web, and would welcome the guarantee of a safer Net experience for their children. Even Coronation St has a storyline highlighting the dangers. It was this and the recent high profile Internet abuse cases that convinced Supanet to create a safe chatroom environment. Supachat is available to young users between the hours of 4-6pm. The site is monitored constantly during this period and prevents the exchange of unsuitable discussion subjects, email addresses, or access to any private chat rooms. "Online children are very vulnerable, because they cannot see the dangers. Being in the comfort of their own home, often their own bedroom makes them more relaxed and complacent," says Alice Morrison, managing editor at Supanet. "Our service aims to provide a fun environment for children while giving parents piece of mind." The supachat process is similar to that used on the football field, bad behaviour in the chat room will earn you a yellow card, with two yellow cards barring you from the service. Yellow card activity includes asking for e-mail addresses, suggesting other chat rooms, being rude, and unsuitable language/topics. Red card activity gets you banned straight away with no warning – this includes bad language, abusive behaviour, and any evidence of the user being an adult. PlusNet: Launch Of New Net Access Products A Success PlusNet’s new Connect range, based on the new FRIACO product, now offers a truly cost-effective Internet access solution to accompany their already comprehensive range of access and added-value services.PlusNet’s Connect services are described as fixed-cost, since their subscription payment includes the cost of the Internet calls, in addition to the Internet access services provided. Unlike services such as BT’s SurfTime service, which required a separate payment to BT as well as the standard ISP subscription, PlusNet Connect means that now only one payment is required. Alistair Wyse, Product and Service Development Director of PlusNet Technologies Ltd. said, “One of the real benefits of Connect for our customers is that now they don’t have to wait until 6pm or the weekend for the cheaper rate. Connect hours can be used at any time, day or night” Wyse continued, “With our new fixed-cost access services, our customers are given complete control of their Internet phone charges coupled with the superb added-value service that you get with PlusNet”. The new Connect services have been warmly received by PlusNet’s customer base. After only three weeks of offering these FRIACO-based unmetered services, in excess of 25% of PlusNet’s subscription-paying customers have switched to Connect. In addition to launching fixed-cost Connect, ADSL services were for the first time made available on PlusNet’s Force9 and Free-Online ISPs. Previously only offered through the Plus.Net brand, the wide range of broadband services for both home and business use now bring high-speed access and cost-savings to a whole new audience. PlusNet has an extensive list of Internet access products too long to list them all here, so we have put together a list here giving full details. Regulators Work Together to Lay the Foundations for OFCOM To coincide with this announcement, the Chief Executives of the five regulators – Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, Oftel, Radiocommunications Agency and the Radio Authority – have appointed Towers Perrin, one of the world’s largest management consulting firms, to map the process for setting up the new regulator. The five Chief Executives – Paul Bolt (BSC), David Edmonds (Oftel), David Hendon (Radiocommunications Agency), Patricia Hodgson (ITC) and Tony Stoller (Radio Authority) said, “This is an extremely exciting project. It will help us to turn the proposals for OFCOM as set out in the White Paper into reality. We need to get the vision and the initial strategy right if we are to develop a new, streamlined regulator appropriate for this dynamic and complex industry.” The initial work by Towers Perrin will include setting out a clear timetable for the stages of work that will need to be carried out in order to get from where we are now to a fully functioning OFCOM by 2003. The Consumers’ Association also commented on the Queen’s speech. Adam Scorer, Senior Public Affairs Officer, Consumers' Association, said, “Although Consumers' Association is concerned that a draft bill is a sign that communications reform may have dropped off the top of the government's agenda, the draft bill should give government the extra months it needs to get the difficult issues right.” He concluded, “It is beyond question that industrial and technological convergence in the communications sector cry out for a comprehensive communications bill. If government wants to deliver demonstrable improvements in choice, quality and diversity in these industries, it will need legislation that establishes independent consumer representation, appropriate rules on cross-media ownership, effective competition and regulation that enhances consumer protection.” E-Commerce Challenge Facing Trading Standards 'Surfing the Big Wave' makes extensive recommendations for improving Trading Standards ability and knowledge of Internet business in order to boost consumer confidence online. Among the most important recommendations is the creation of a national post charged with co-ordinating the transition to e-government and establishing the Trading Standards Internet enforcement and regulatory role. Over 30% of households already have Internet access and over 6 million people are shopping on the virtual high street. The report is a response to business concerns that Trading Standards Services have fallen slightly behind the times, reflected in their lack of resources to regulate e-commerce. Trading Standards professionals must monitor the activities of all businesses online, making sure that the laws that apply to the High Street also apply to virtual shopping. Over the last few years the calls for Trading Standards Services to get involved in e-commerce have escalated, with both business and the Government acknowledging the importance of consumer confidence in ensuring the world of e-commerce develops safely. This is a huge task for any regulatory and enforcement body, but given the appropriate resources based on the recommendations outlined in the report, Trading Standards can fulfil their role as the leader in e-commerce consumer protection. Centrica Possible Buyer For One.Tel UK In a recent article in the Financial Times, it is understood that although a deal has not yet been agreed, discussions are in an advanced stage and there is a possibility that a deal could be announced within a week. The UK business of One.Tel is one of the company’s profitable units and could fetch over £60 million As well as providing gas and electricity services, home loans, insurance and plumbing, Centrica added telecoms to its range of products last September. The company already has 400,000 fixed-line residential telecoms customers and has said it wants to increase this to 1 million by the end of the year. Cloud Nine Reveals New FRIACO Products  In addition to Cloud Nine’s vast range of Internet accounts are to be simplified by the creation of a set of sub-branded product categories to make it easier to select the best Internet product.The new FRIACO-based products come under the EconomySurf product category. Offering unmetered access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with a contention ratio of 10:1, all products have a 2 hour cut-off period. HomeSurf Economy - Includes a free .co.uk domain name for personalisation, 10 POP3 mailboxes will unlimited email addresses, email control panel and webmail. Priced at £15.99 per month. HomeSurf Professional Economy - Includes a free .co.uk domain name and 50MB of web space, 10 POP3 mailboxes with unlimited email addresses, email control panel and webmail. Priced at £18.98 per month. BusinessSurf Economy - Includes a free .co.uk domain name and 100MB of web space with FrontPage 2000 and ASP scripting support, form to email scripts and daily web site statistics through a professional graphical stats package, 10 POP3 mailboxes will unlimited email addresses, email control panel and webmail. Also has a lower contention ratio. Priced at £24.68 per month. Existing HomeSurf/BusinessSurf customers will have the option to remain with the same product they currently have or switch into EconomySurf where they think they can make savings. The ClassicSurf range of products include the popular One Star Deluxe, One Star Platinum, One Star SQL, etc range of web and email hosting packages. There are also some new additions of: ClassicFree - Offer a quality 0845 dial-up connection. Can be used as backup to the EconomySurf packages. This terminates at a different point on the network to the EconomySurf packages. No fee, just the price of a local-rate call. ClassicEmail - Includes a free .co.uk domain registration or free domain transfer, 10 POP3 mailboxes with unlimited email addresses, email management control panel, webmail and a quality 0845 dial-up connection. Priced at £57.58 per year. ClassicNetwork - Includes a fixed IP number on an 0845 dial-up, free .co.uk domain name registration, incoming and outgoing SMTP with support for Microsoft Exchange, SBS and other SMTP mail servers. This will replace the existing BusinessBrowse products. Priced at £264.38 per year. Finally the PremiumSurf range offers unmetered access through the BT SurfTime product which involves paying a fee through your BT telephone bill. This range offers unmetered access with a contention ratio of 2.5:1 for the 260 hour ‘Heavy Usage’ band and 1:1 for the ‘Unlimited Usage’ band. Because the contention is only "notional" and the service is sold on time bands you should never be getting engaged signals and there is no cut-off as on contended products. BusinessSurf - This range of SurfTime accounts offers professional hosting and a dynamic IP number. The flagship Network Connect range provides a static IP for VPN and incoming and outgoing SMTP for mail servers such as MS Exchange. Prices range from £33+vat per month. PremiumOffPeak - A single home user product formerly known as HomeSurf OffPeak. Offers off-peak unmetered access using SurfTime. ClassicFree is provided for peak calls. Priced at £84.60 per year. All Cloud Nine need to complete their range of Internet access accounts is an ADSL product. The ISP will be testing this during the summer. Consumers' Association Publishes Internet Survey Findings The gap has closed to the extent that 45% of those logged on to the net are now female. Women are also now just as likely as men to shop online. As a whole, 36% of the British public, more than 16 million people, are now surfing the Internet up 9% on the 2000 figure (27%). However, there appears to be little evidence that we are becoming a nation of Internet addicts. Although net users now spend more time online than in 1998, the majority (63%) still surf for less than five hours a week and the number of sites visited has actually decreased marginally to an average of 12 per week. Paul Kitchen, Head of Which? Online, said, "Our survey shows that most people believe that the Internet is becoming part of everyday life. There are more people online, with a big increase in the number of female users. Around eight million people have now bought something on the Internet and the range of what they're buying is now getting wider. And a broader spectrum of the UK population is online than ever before." He added, "As unmetered access packages spread, and as users become more experienced, the time we spend online is likely to increase. What was once extraordinary is well on the way to becoming everyday." Of all the Internet deals currently available 5 methods of paying for access are used most frequently. Almost 1 in 5 opt for the free 0845 type deals where no monthly fee is paid but the consumer picks up all call charges. Longer term and light/medium level users are more likely than average to have this type of package. The new breed of deals offering a monthly fee with unmetered Internet access at any time are now the second most popular package, currently used by 1 in 7 surfers. This is quite an achievement given that unmetered access has only been existence for a relatively short time. It is also encouraging that medium/high level users (more than 5 hours a week online) are much more likely to take advantage of these deals as they probably offer them the best value for money. A further 1 in 10 pay the fixed monthly subscription to their ISP and only pay for calls at certain times (i.e. during peak hours). 11% claim to 'surf for free' as they do not pay any subscription fee or any call charges. However, these deals are generally not as 'free' as they first seem - often involving tie-ins with phone companies or other catches. At the other extreme, 1 in 7 consumers are still paying both a monthly fee and all call charges. The survey also indicates that the public are beginning to reject newer methods of communication. Only 5% of surfers chose email as their preferred means of communication in comparison to 14% in the 1999 Which? Online Internet survey. In contrast, the number of surfers expressing a preference for face-to-face meetings has risen from 39% in 1999 to 67% in this year's survey. The PC still remains the primary means of connecting to the web for the vast majority of Internet users (94%). The usage of Digital TV to access the net has not increased significantly on last year. In addition to not attracting more current users, enthusiasm for accessing the Internet through digital TV in the future has also dwindled. Only 1 in 5 adults agreed that they are looking forward to going online this way. However, levels of interest are much higher among those not yet online. 42% of people who intend to go online at some point in the future are enthusiastic about doing so through digital TV. Other new methods of accessing the Internet, such as mobile phones and mobile devices (PDAs), scored similarly unfavourable responses to those recorded for digital TV. In contrast, enthusiasm for high speed broadband Internet access was much higher with over 40% of Internet users keen to start accessing the net this way and 7% stating that they already did so. The number of Internet users shopping online remains similar to last year with around half (47%) of all users having tried it at least once. However, the increase in the sheer size of the Internet population means that more people than ever (almost 8 million adults) have now shopped on the net. Freeserve Customers In Despair Over Account Upgrade One of our regular readers has kindly sent us a copy of the email that Freeserve are sending out to its customers. Obviously there will be many disappointed Internet users out there, but the closure of the Freeserve Unlimited account will still be going ahead and will customers will be forced to accept the Freeserve AnyTime account or change ISP.Here is an extract from the email: YOUR FREESERVE UNLIMITED TIME SERVICESo you only have 21 days to take advantage of the special offer. But I feel that existing Freeserve Unlimited customers will not be so happy with the move. As well as the increase in the price, Unlimited customers will also lose access to discounted telephone calls which is part of the Unlimited product. Heavy LineOne Users Face Account Termination LineOne have said that following a recent audit, certain customer’s usage of the “unlimited” off-peak SurfTime product has been abnormally high. In the next two weeks, and periodically thereafter, the users will have their online time monitored and if they do not cut back on their Internet use, they will issue 2 days written notice of account termination. LineOne have said that this is in accordance with clause 5.4 of the LineOne SurfTime terms and conditions.Here is an extract from the letter: Termination will only affect the LineOne charge of the £9.99 monthly SurfTime subscription fee (not the BT SurfTime charge) and you will still be able to use your LineOne email account through a different access number.Average use of LineOne SurfTime is around nine hours per week. If this should be seen as a guideline, then users would be looking at just 1 hour and 15 minutes a day for their £9.99 monthly fee. At the moment we have had no reply from their spokesman, so we will probably do an update later. OFTEL Tackles 070 Personal Number Scams Personal numbers are known as 'find me anywhere numbers'. They always begin with the prefix 070. They are an important service, as users can forward calls to specified telephone numbers, including mobile phone numbers.David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications said, “Personal numbers are a useful service for people who are regularly on the move and want calls directed to the current phone they are using. However action is needed to stamp out the growing number of scams by people who use these numbers deceitfully as a way to make money.” The charge for calling personal numbers can be higher than the cost of a normal call. The most common scam is to induce people to call a personal number where the tariff has been set at a higher rate, for example by asking businesses to fax their details to an 070 number. The caller unknowingly runs up a large bill, much of which goes to the person owning the number. Edmonds added, “There have been instances where people have been asked to fax back spurious lengthy surveys to a personal number at rates of up to 37.5 pence per minute. Internet access and advice lines operating on 070 numbers are other methods used to make money out of calls to these numbers.” Oftel is also working closely with ICSTIS, the premium rate services watchdog. ICSTIS Director George Kidd said, “The vast majority of premium rate services operate without cause for concern. However, ICSTIS is investigating a number of premium rate services operating on 070 numbers instead of the dedicated 090 premium rate dialling code. We will not hesitate to impose sanctions against such services if they breach our Code of Practice.” Oftel has written to trade associations asking them to warn their members to think twice before making a lengthy call to an 070 number. ClaraNET’s Unmetered Access On Its Way The first unmetered package will be aimed towards home users and will be called FreeTime AnyTime which will provide 24/7 unmetered access for £14.99 per month with a user to modem ratio of 10:1. It is likely to have a 2-hour cut-off period. Although ClaraNET’s FreeTime AnyTime will become available from 29th June, a second 24/7 package offering a reduced ratio of 5:1 is not expected until July. This is expected to be priced at £24.99 per month. ClaraNET have told us that at present they have no plans to offer a 128K ISBN unmetered connection. Details of how to register for both packages will be posted on their website in due course. New E-Minister on Net4Nowt Hit List With several hundred supporters for the campaign already achieved, the campaign is now going up a gear as the lobbying of MP's and appropriate Government departments commences. In particular, Net4Nowt will be approaching the newly appointed E-Minister who we hope will seize this opportunity to put some of his critics in their place. It was reported that the Internet industry was been left puzzled by Tony Blair's appointment of a little-known MP to replace outgoing e-minister Patricia Hewitt despite the Prime Minister's insistence about the importance of the Net. On Monday, Douglas Alexander, a protege of the Chancellor and MP for Paisley South, was appointed Minister for E-commerce and Competitiveness on a salary of £85,178. Mr Alexander's parliamentary career has so far been very low profile. In his four years in the House of Commons, he has made contributions to just 20 debates, according to Hansard. His parliamentary appearances have also yet to show any technological leanings. The word "Internet" has passed Mr Alexander's lips just once in the Commons. Steve Bennett, the founder of e-commerce business Jungle.com which was bought by the retail group GUS for £37m last year, said that Mr Alexander and his career had so far passed him by. He added: "He can't do any worse than Patricia Hewitt who was all talk and no action." In its first term, Labour was at pains to position itself as the party which was going to bring Britain to the forefront of the technological revolution. One of its more ambitious plans is to make all government services available online by 2005.The government has also promised to narrow the so-called digital divide and make high-speed internet access, or broadband, available in all parts of the country. So far the government's record has been mixed. Recent figures published by the Office of National Statistics show that the digital divide is widening and the roll-out of high speed internet access is generally considered to have been a failure. Roll Up For the ISP Sale On Monday, Breathe.com, formerly owned by GUS, was the latest ISP to switch owners after Affinity Internet paid £1.75m for the business. Meanwhile, a question mark still hangs over Virgin.net, the internet arm of Sir Richard Branson's eclectic empire. Alex Dale, managing director, denies that the business, part-owned by cable company NTL, is up for sale, although he does concede that "people have been sniffing around". Lehman Brothers has been appointed to explore Virgin's options in a market populated by more desperate sellers than buyers willing to pay a decent price. IC24, the ISP owned by Trinity Mirror, is also still looking for a new owner, and the acquisitive Italian group Tiscali remains the lead contender. This could, however, be said about any European ISP which comes up for sale. Tiscali refused to comment on a possible acquisition. Last week, Excite@Home, the US internet business, announced it was closing down all its European websites, except those in Italy and the UK. It is a move which leaves the door open for a possible acquisition by Tiscali which has a strong presence in both countries. Any sale of Excite could be good news for BT, which owns 42pc of the UK operations after paying $10m (£7m) for the stake in November 1998. In Europe, Excite is well behind competitors such as Yahoo! in terms of user numbers. Evan Rudowski, managing director of Excite UK, said: "We cannot comment on any negotiations that may be ongoing but it is true that BT and Excite@Home would be happy to sell if they got the right offer. However, we are not desperate as the UK business made a small profit last quarter." Tiscali is Italy's largest ISP, and it has operations in seven different countries with more than 7m subscribers in Europe. It has expanded rapidly by acquisition, buying LineOne, World Online, LibertySurf and a number of other ISPs over the last six months. In the UK, a number of ISPs have already been taken over, including Freeserve, which was bought by France Telecom's telephone directory and internet group Wanadoo in December for £1.6 billion in shares. Other deals include Direct Connection which was bought by Netscalibur last year, and Jings and Madasafish, which were sold by Iomart to a telecoms consortium. SOURCE: The Telegraph KeMe Let Down by Telephony Carrier The following statement is taken from their website. Dear Subscribers, Latest On BigBlueSky Issues However existing BigBlueSky customers are criticising the service saying that it’s over-subscribed and some are having to re-dial nearly a hundred times to get connected. Here are just a few comments from our BigBlueSky forum: “I've been signed up for 3 weeks now but have NEVER got online.”There are the usual rumours doing their rounds about the future of the company. One in particular suggests that customers are deliberately receiving the authentication errors because BigBlueSky are trying to keep the cost down as they are unable to fund the service. We have put this claim to the ISP and voiced their customer’s concerns over the connection issues but we never received a reply before going to press. Another ISP called Wonkypig is offering a 24/7 unmetered service priced at £5.99 per month or £71.88 per year. Many of our readers have quoted the similarities between the two ISPs. Their terms and conditions are identical and once their status page even carried the same messages and updates on the same problems. If Wonkypig are simply reselling the BigBlueSky service, they are offering nothing extra to justify the difference in price. Until we contacted them earlier today, their registration page was unsecure and confidential details including credit card details were being sent by email. Wonkypig are reselling their service to an ISP called ItsGoodToGive who contribute a share of the subscription fee to charities. They charge £9.99 per month or £108 per year for the same service. We contacted Marc Warman from Wonkypig who said they were aware of the unsecure registration page and were in the process of changing to a new system. This is now in place. But on the subject of them reselling the BigBlueSky product, he denied the claim saying that they are working with BT and NTL. Whoever Wonkypig are using to provide the service, we have not received any complaints from customers on the quality of the Internet access or customer support. Zone’s £37 Million Claim Continues Against BT The Zone Corporation claimed that BT promised them an unmetered wholesale charge via their FRIACO (Flat Rate Internet Access Call Origination) scheme. Shortly before the service was due to go live, BT informed Zone that the offer was the ‘hybrid’ version which includes a metered charge. Zone says that this made their 08002go service unviable and wanted compensation for advertising and other related costs. At the hearing in the Manchester High Court, Judge Gosnell stated that from the information presented to him, it was clear there were a multiplicity of issues, which without the disclosure of documents and witness statements on both sides, he could not judge the merits. However, he rejected the BT claim that there was no chance of success by Zone Corporation. BT was ordered pay the costs of the petition for both sides. BT asked for the right to appeal and this was refused. A spokesman for Zone Corporation added, "We are a very fair minded company and we have not been pleased at the way BT adopted such a cavalier attitude towards us as they have done over the past year and a half. We are very pleased with Monday’s outcome along with the earlier judgment to us in January 2001.” “We suppose that BT imagined, that a then small Manchester based Company would not have any chance against the massive poorly run giant BT, or perhaps they were just hoping we would just simply disappear, sorry BT that just did not happen. We are now a very popular ISP with our membership growing daily and we have always felt that BT has held back services to the public unnecessarily.” 08002go provides 24/7 access for everyone, including non-BT customers, for £9.98 per month. The final outcome of the trial will probably not be known until the end of the year but Zone Corporation confirmed that whatever the outcome, the unmetered service from 08002go will not be affected. UK Net Access Cheaper Than California Claims Oftel Oftel's latest international benchmarking report shows UK prices at February 2001 for key telecoms services were still amongst the lowest in Europe, and compare favourably with the USA.David Edmonds, Director General of Telecommunications, said, "With the introduction of unmetered tariffs which are now widespread in the UK, Internet access is cheaper here than in California and a number of other European countries. UK consumers continue to get a good deal for key telecoms services compared with other European countries.” Key findings of the research include: • For residential heavy Internet users in the UK unmetered Internet access costs from £18 per month – as compared to the equivalent of £19 per month in California, and £39 per month in Germany. Unmetered dial-up Internet access is not available in France or Sweden;Edmonds added, "Cheap Internet access has been stimulated by Oftel’s action to encourage unmetered services and choice, enabling operators to supply unmetered Internet access to customers using BT’s network. Over a third of UK Internet consumers now opt for some form of unmetered access, while dial up unmetered packages are not yet available for Swedish and French consumers." David Edmonds said that Oftel’s work had delivered lower prices for consumers. "Oftel’s work to promote competition and choice has helped deliver lower prices for consumers for dial up Internet access, fixed line telephony and mobile phone services. Oftel's strategy is to achieve the best deal for consumers through a competitive and dynamic telecoms market. Today’s benchmarking survey shows that the deals available for consumers are amongst the best in Europe and America." As the saying goes, ‘Lies, damn lies and statistics’. More Unmetered Choices For Telewest Customers Earlier this month the ISP Vispa discovered after talking to NTL staff that their customers will also not be charged for their forthcoming 0880 access. A spokesman for Telewest told us, “Telewest phone customers can choose to take an unmetered Internet service from another provider if they wish. If the service uses an 0800 or 0808 number, there will be no call charges from us.” Martin Pitt, managing director of Vispa Internet Limited said, "This is excellent news from Telewest. We have been asking many of our users to lobby Telco’s in order to allow the use of 0808 numbers for Internet use, which it seems that Telewest from a consumer point of view have warmly agreed would be for the best. Vispa welcomes Telewest’s decision 100%" Despite many unmetered ISPs stating that the user must be a BT customer, it now appears that the flood gates may be opening for customers of other telephone companies. But Martin Pitt added that although Telco’s may not charge for 0808 numbers, some are refusing to peer with BT and pass unmetered calls over to ISPs like Vispa. Telco’s including NTL and Eurobell have agreed with BT to pass unmetered calls, but there is still work to be done. Unmetered Internet access is becoming more popular with every month seeing a steady increase in subscriber figures. If the Telco’s don’t pass the calls over to ISPs the customer will simply find another telephone company that will. Big Brother - A Big Hit According To Survey NetValue’s figures for May show that 4.3% of all home Internet users in the UK logged on to Big Brother last month. The average visitor spent more than 15 minutes on the site. By contrast, the website for Survivor, ITV’s competing reality show, had too few visitors to appear in the rankings. Men made up 61.8% of visitors to the site, and 57.7% were under 35. Professionals made up 18% and students 21.8%. More experienced web users, those who first logged on in 1998 or before, made up 40.9% of visitors. The number of women online increases to grow, with 5.8 million women using the Internet in May, an increase of 1.8 million since the start of the year. For the first time ever in the UK, women are spending longer on the web and viewing more pages than men. Competitively Priced Unmetered Access From Charitable ISP ItsGoodToGive.co.uk offer their customers unmetered access for just £9.99 per month or £108 per year [although on their subscription page it states £119.88]. For monthly subscriptions the ISP will donate £2 per month to charities. Under the annual deal, the ISP is donating £20 to the charities it supports. John Ager, the ISP's executive chairman, declined to say which carrier is handling the Internet traffic when interviewed by Newsbytes. But after a close look at the registration form, it appears they are using a provider called ‘WONKYPIG INTERNET RYDE’ which we believe may be a VISP using the BigBlueSky service. Ager said, "I was disbelieving at first, but we've spent a lot of time going over the figures, and we believe the (economic) model is viable, so we're happy to offer this deal to subscribers," The unmetered service is being restricted to 10,000 subscribers. Ager added that, unlike other ISP deals, the £9.99 subscription is being offered to businesses as well as consumers. Source: Newsbytes.com Telewest Cleared By Advertising Standards Authority  In the advert the cable company stated that their service was “nearly 10 times faster than your current dial-up service”. But the complainants challenged the claim after they were unable to achieve the high speeds as advertised.Telewest refuted the complaint and maintained that their experiences were irregular and specific to the complainants' connections or computers. They volunteered a senior Telewest engineer to examine the complainants' equipment but none of the complainants took up the offer. Telewest also provided information from an independent study of dial-up ISP performance showing the average dial-up modem throughput speed was 33.92 kbps in February 2001. Telewest said it was not possible for a dial-up modem to achieve speeds of more than 56.6 kbps. The claim in the advert was based on the average modem speed and not the maximum speed. Telewest also provided data showing that on average their service provided throughput speeds 11.1 times faster than the average throughput speed available with dial-up ISPs. It was explained to the ASA that because high-speed, always-on, Internet services were usually targeted at experienced and frequent users of the Internet, those users were often highly critical of I.T. services and applications. Most of their customers were happy with their service and that was confirmed by testimonials on their website claimed Telewest. BT Wireless Chairman Appointed David Varney will become chairman-designate later this month and will work with BT management and Peter Erskine, chief executive officer of BT wireless, in the run-up to the de-merger. A skilled leader of organisational change, he has experience in both UK and overseas markets gained during his four years as chief executive of the BG Group and, prior to that, in a variety of senior roles at Shell. He left BG plc in 2000 having steered the Group to a successful de-merger and put in place a strong management team for each of the two new companies, BG Group plc and the Lattice Group plc. David Varney said, “The de-merged BT wireless needs to be a flexible, nimble organisation alert to the opportunities in its marketplace. Its focused and accountable management team, led by Peter Erskine, will concentrate on growing shareholder value. I look forward to working with Peter and his colleagues as we drive forward the creation of a new, major FTSE 100 company.” BT announced on May 10th that it intends to de-merge BT wireless before the end of this year. World Online Face £10 Million Writ  According to the Financial Times today the personal finance site Globalnet Financial issued a £10m claim at the high court in London against the now Tiscali owned ISP. It claims the company exaggerated subscriber figures and page views for a deal signed in September 1999.More than a year ago, Nina Brink who was chairman at the time, sold the bulk of her stake in the company before the initial public offering which was not clearly laid out in the prospectus. There then followed a dramatic fall in the share value. Globalnet claim that World Online stated that it had 16 million page views a month in Denmark when the deal was signed. But in the flotation prospectus six months later a figure of just 2.9 million was quoted. Globalnet also dispute the supplied subscriber figures. 700,000 subscribers was the figure quoted for Germany in September 1999. But when World Online was floated the following year, there was only 2,500 subscribers. Tiscali said it had received the claim and was studying the situation. World Online/Tiscali are also ending their telephone service on the 12th July forcing customers to either move back to BT or transfer their account to Servista. BT usually requires 30 days notification. Customers who wish to move over to BT should arrange the transfer now by ringing 0800 400 436 now or face an interruption in their telephone service. World Online/Tiscali have been sending out ‘end of service’ letters to its customers but according to The Scream!, many customers still have not received their letter and may be unaware that they have to take action now. Madasafish Newsgroup Access To Return The problem was caused by an oversight with the recent sale of the ISP by iomart. Madasafish has every intention of providing a newsgroup service to its customers and the access will be resuming as soon as possible. In addition, Madasafish will soon be launching a new range of unmetered packages. Hopefully we will have further details from the ISP in a few weeks time. Douglas Alexander Named As E-Minister  The 34 year old MP for Paisley South was born in Glasgow and joined the Labour Party at the age of 14.He has been named as the Minister for E-Commerce & Competitiveness whilst Patricia Hewitt, his predecessor, has been promoted to Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. 429 Million Home Users Now Online Worldwide The Nielsen/NetRatings global Internet trends report shows that the US and Canada still account for the largest proportion of the world's Internet access, with 41% of the global audience located in those countries. Europe, the Middle East and Africa has the second highest proportion of access, with 27% of the world's Internet population, followed by Asia Pacific with 20%, and trailed by Latin America with 4%. "In terms of penetration levels, just over a quarter of European households have Internet access via a home PC, compared to one third of the households in Asia Pacific and nearly half of American households," said Richard Goosey, chief of measurement science and analytics, ACNielsen eRatings.com. But he added, "Don't expect this American domination to last long, though. Compared to a year ago, significantly more households in Europe and Asia Pacific now have a PC in the home and a greater proportion of homes are making use of that PC to connect to the Internet. Over the next twelve months, another 9% of European households and 12% of Asia Pacific households plan on acquiring Internet access." Goosey also noted that Germany and the UK continue to dominate Europe in terms of Internet access, with Germany, the UK, Italy and France together accounting for two-thirds of the European households with Internet access via home PC. In the first quarter of 2001, Germany recorded the greatest increase in terms of number of households with home Internet access. The three Europ | ||