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PlusNet Announce Revised Unmetered Packages  One such account, Connect Lite User, offers unmetered access to the Internet, at whatever time of the day, for only £6.99 a month, with no call charges to pay. Albeit there is a monthly limit of 80 hours, less than 3 hours per day. At 1p per minute using OneTel’s service it would work out at a cost of £48 for the same 80 hours.“Complete with a free .co.uk domain name of your own, unlimited e-mail addresses, 250MB of web space and all the tools you need to get the most of the opportunities the Internet gives you, Connect Lite User makes an ideal starting point for the home user,” stated Alistair Wyse, Product and Services Director for PlusNet. “Today’s launch of Connect Lite User adds a budget option to our unmetered range that makes local-rate 0845 dialup look increasingly dated”. Using FRIACO, the unmetered packages are available to anyone with a BT telephone line. Many unmetered ISP are starting to find out that maintaining an unmetered service just isn’t viable, even using FRIACO. The likes of BTopenworld, formerly BTinternet, have already kicked off 200 users and moved many more onto a different dial-up number which is proving unreliable at peak times. To prevent ISPs from going out of business they are having to introduce daily limits to their service or increase their prices. This is obviously angering numerous users as the service they originally signed up to has changed beyond recognition. Also users are signing up to ‘cheap’ unmetered ISPs that come along offering the world on a plate for a ridiculously low price. They expect the ‘world on a plate’ service which is what they have paid for but after a few months things start to go wrong -it is not financially viable and 08002go appear to be a case in point. The daily limits being used in PlusNet’s unmetered products may be unpopular but are starting to become the norm. At least users know where they stand before they decide to sign-up. As long as such unmetered packages are not advertised as being ‘unlimited’, there should be no problem. Remember, ‘unmetered’ does not mean ‘unlimited’. If you want both you will have to pay out for such a dial-up service or get a broadband connection such as ADSL which we all know is not an option for many users. New Pre-Pay Internet Service Launched nStream PrePay is aimed at the Internet user with an average access requirement of around an hour a day or less. nStream PrePay allows the customer to purchase ‘blocks’ of access time. Several payment options are available with discounts based on quantity of minutes purchased. Customers are automatically ‘topped up’ once they have used their block of minutes. The new PrePay service is particularly suited to those individuals with unpredictable access needs, such as those that frequently make trips abroad - there’s little point in paying a monthly subscription if you are away for the month on business! nStream's PrePay product is based around the industry standard BT SurfPort product. By utilising the PrePay billing method, and keeping the usage responsibility with the customer, Data River have been able to avoid the enforced disconnection rules which cause so much frustration with other SurfPort based Internet Access offerings. As part of the nStream PrePay launch, Data River are offering customers that purchase before the 15th October a ‘two for one’ deal - effectively halving the initial cost of the service, i.e. buy one block of time and get another equivalent block of access time absolutely free. Full details of nStream PrePay can be found by visiting their site at www.nstream.co.uk/prepay or by calling customer information on 020 7001 9960. Ireland Have To Wait Longer For Broadband Access Telecoms Regulator Etain Doyle wants to fully ensure that provider eircom can provide proof of competitive wholesale pricing within the infastructure of its i-stream ADSL service which was due to be launched in the next couple of days. The Regulator asked eircom to submit their revised wholesale pricing proposals and to provide evidence that their pricing proposals did not breach competition laws. Telco eircom cannot launch the service until 21 days after the revised prices have been approved by the Regulator creating further delays and more anger from those currently seeking to influence public officials for broadband access in Ireland. Elana Kehoe of Ireland Offline remarked: "This is getting beyond frustrating. I guess we can't really complain because the ODTR is looking out for the best interests of consumers. Except it is consumers who are caught in the middle of this slanging match. It is the consumer that is going to be losing out." A minimum of a three week delay is expected before the official launch of the service. Source: The Register Affinity And WHSmith Unite To Provide Competitive Access The partnership of the two companies will hope to bring successful and significant developments by creating competitive Internet access packages that will provide excellent value for customers of WHSmith.co.uk. Kate Kennedy Managing Director of WHSmith.co.uk, said: "This partnership is part of WHSmith.co.uk's ongoing commitment to provide best value services for our customers. As part of our overall 'bricks and clicks' strategy our ISP service also supports our core offer, giving us an innovative edge against retail-only competitors such as Amazon." Wayne Lochner, group CEO of Affinity, commented: "We are delighted WHSmith.co.uk share our belief in the power of taking bricks and mortar brands online and offering value added services to customers. Securing a deal with such a well-known high street brand strengthens our belief that ISP services are the perfect channel for any organisation to directly communicate with their customers in an online capacity." It is reported that further details of the new service will be announced in mid - October. Source: Sourcewire.com Tiscali Forgets To Pay Bill And Leaves UK Companies Disconnected Tiscali UK resells BT leased lines and BT decided to cut off the leased lines for non-payment of the bill which meant around a dozen UK companies were left high-and-dry without a connection. The ISP later made the following statement: "Tiscali UK would like to sincerely apologise to the leased line customers for any disruption they may have experienced recently to their services. "The integration of World Online, Liberty Surf and LineOne inevitably necessitates a transitional period for Tiscali UK. Whilst the company goes through intensive change, systems, processes and procedures have to be identified and rationalised across all acquisitions. "Despite our best attempts to make this transitional period as seamless for our customers as possible, some of our leased line customers experienced a disruption to their services. "During the integration of the companies, movement of staff and restructuring, a small number of leased lines from one of our suppliers was inadvertently terminated, which resulted in some of our customers losing service for a short period of time." The lines where reported to have been down for a period of around six hours and according to an insider, Tiscali had no knowledge of the problem until complaints poured in from angry customers. Source: The Register Telewest Unveils New Broadband Content Telewest firmly believe that broadband access and content go hand-in-hand in offering appeal to prospecitve new users, and it is hoped the site will be a successful reflection of their beliefs as the site will initially focus on games, entertainment, music, and local content and services. A spokesman for blueyonder, Telewest's branded broadband service, said: "We're extremely committed to providing broadband content. There is a growing consensus that more and more people are beginning to become willing to pay for content." Telewest also plans to expand the content on offer and include other areas of interest for their subscribers, like shopping for example. Source: The Register BTopenworld Disconnects Users After Warning Was Ignored Apparently the warning only managed to see half of the users involved act positively by restraining their usage to an appropriate level - the other 200 however continued to 'abuse' the connection. This in turn provoked BT to take further action and they notified those involved earlier this week with full intentions to cut them off from the service altogether. In a seperate issue however, some users of the service complained to the advertising watchdog about BTopenworld's decision to impose restrictions on the Anytime service. The advertisement shown on BTopenworld's Web site reads: "Anytime just £14.99 per month. surf whenever you like, as often as you like with no internet call charges." Subscribers to the service feel angry because the 'as much as you like as often as you like' message from the ad is not considered to be a true description of the service. A spokeswoman for the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) confirmed that it had received one complaint this week on the issue. Yesterday, the ASA slapped BTopenworld for describing its Anytime service as "reliable" after punters protested that they couldn't use the service. The ASA upheld the complaint and informed BTopenworld that the word "reliable" is considered to be an incorrect terminology when relating to the service, and it must be removed from its advertising until any problems had been sorted. Source: The Register 08002go - Down but not out "Firstly, we can only apologise for the ongoing difficulties that you are experiencing in connecting to this service. We are working hard to resolve the technical difficulties. However, we cannot give you a definitive time when the service will be back on line - rest assured, we are actively working on the problem. We will keep you updated on our progress on the home page. Secondly, the issue of refunds. To clarify, it is not possible to reimburse any customer once a connection to the 08002go serviceline has been made. This relates not only to customers who pay on a monthly service, but also to those who have (through choice) opted to pay yearly in advance. {The Legal Department may be contacted on 0161-707-8474 and will deal with your specific queries}. However, customers who pay on a 'rolling' basis will be able to stop their payments immediately. Finally. We pride ourselves on our professionalism and customer service and are naturally disappointed with the opinions expressed on this MessageBoard. The situation is indeed fraught at the moment - funding issues as well as the aforementioned technical difficulties are hampering our otherwise top line service. I would ask you to bear with us. It will be worth it in the long run." WEBMASTER 08002GO E-minister calls for slower broadband He said in a statement: "The challenge for BT is to introduce lower-priced, lower-specification products of the sort which have helped consumers move up the broadband ladder in other countries." A DTI spokesman was unable to confirm exactly which countries the e-minister had in mind, but he did confirm the comments related to consumer broadband. This could mean one of two things - either launching services with a bandwidth lower than the minimum 512Kpbs available today, or increasing the numbers of customers sharing to each line out of the exchange - the so-called "contention ratio". SOURCE: Silicon Claranet Faces Legal Action Internet service provider Claranet is among five UK companies facing legal action from the Business Software Alliance over alleged use of unlicensed software. The Alliance said it has settled similar claims against another five organisations for more than GBP25,000. Among the five companies facing legal action on Wednesday is games developer Climax Development. Debt management firm Baines & Ernst Financial Management, Hussmann Europe, a provider of refrigeration products, and Learoyd Packaging are also to be sued, said the BSA. The BSA is backed by software firms including Adobe, Inprise, Lotus, Macromedia, Microsoft, Novell, Symantec and others. Earlier this year the BSA announced 88 legal actions across Europe. BT Ad Withdrawn The advert stated "BT Anytime for a fast, reliable service". However problems were found with BT's telephone exchanges, which were unable to connect users even though gateways for internet access were available, leading to customers wrongly receiving a busy signal. The ASA ruled: "Because intermittent and ongoing problems were preventing some customers from connecting to the internet, the authority considered the advertisers' claim that their service was reliable was misleading." BT has removed the advert from its website until the problem is solved. Internet Traffic Doubles Since January BT Wholesale Offers One Stop Shop to Local Loop Customers With this new service, BT will manage and service all the equipment associated with an alternative operator's digital line from the BT telephone exchange through to the end user. By having BT Wholesale look after their equipment and lines, other operators will no longer have to spend resources on suppliers, equipment or technical experts to design their networks. BT will carry out these tasks on their behalf. This process will also enable BT Wholesale's customers to reduce their level of financial exposure at a time when the telecoms sector is under pressure. The downturn in the sector was recently identified by a House of Commons Select Committee1 as a significant reason for operators reduced interest in accessing the local network. BT has introduced the service to address this concern and stimulate participation. The new service is the latest in a line of developments aimed at simplifying and speeding up the local loop unbundling process. Earlier initiatives provided other operators with very high speed links from their own remote internet hubs to BT exchanges and this latest initiative covers the link from those exchanges through to the end customer. Stuart Horwood, managing director, BT Wholesale Markets, said: "This latest initiative shows that BT is committed to making Broadband Britain a reality. More than 70 per cent of Britain's Internet users are now connected to broadband exchanges and the task ahead is to stimulate demand. Our aim, with this new service, is to make it easier for BT Wholesale customers to offer broadband, thereby creating a vibrant and competitive market." Be Wary Of The Vote For Peace Virus According to Computer Associates International the virus payload consists of dropping two Visual Basic Script files and registry modifications so that the scripts will run on Windows startup. The first script attempts to overwrite HTML/HTM files on local and network drives with the text string "AmeRiCa... Few Days WiLL Show You What We Can Do!!! Its Our Turn." The second script makes modifications to the autoexec.bat file, so that if the user reboots all files in the Windows directory will be deleted and the C: drive reformatted. The virus was first discovered on Monday in North America and the subject line of the email carrying the virus is: "Fwd: Peace BeTweeN AmeriCa And IsLaM!" and the email body says "Hi iS iT A waR Against AmeriCa Or IsLaM !? Lets Vote To Live in Peace!". The actual virus is hidden in an attachment called WTC.exe, so please be extra vigilant before opening any mail. Net4Nowt recommends users to update their virus software on a regular basis. If you do not own or have virus software installed on your system, an excellent free edition complete with free online updates is rated highly by some of our members and is available for download here. Source: Internet Business News BTopenworld's Billing Dept. Mails Out Virus To Subscribers Disgruntled and angry users of the broadband service claimed that emails appearing to originate from BT Openworld's billing address were infected with the BadTrans Windows virus. In conjunction with that, the virus appeared to be mailing itself to users who had sent emails to billing@btopenworld.com in the past few months. Emails intercepted by MessageLabs' antivirus scanning service confirmed that the email headers were from BTOpenworld.com. BadTrans is a mass mailing virus and also drops a Trojan onto any machines it infects. It was discovered back in April and is protected against by most antivirus software. Users received the emails on Friday, and then in increasing numbers over the weekend. BT Openworld managed to fix the problem and vnunet.com has received no new reports. Spokesman Tony Henderson from BT Openworld had claimed that the BT division had no previous knowledge regarding the possibility of infection to subscribers. However, he did assure vnunet that they would be aiming to catch the perpetrator of the virus via running system checks. One user claimed that when they contacted BTopenworld over the incident, they were informed that the problem had been fixed - but when the user then explained that there are potentially 100's of users with PC's that are not fixed, there was not an inkling of advice at hand from BTopenworld, - instead just a simple reply of "sorry" was given. For those interested in further reading, a number of readers contacted vnunet.com and started up a discussion thread on ADSLguide.org.uk, which can be read here. Source: Vnunet ISP News from Net4nowt - ready for download http://www.net4nowt.com/newsletter3/n4nmagazine_issue3.pdf In this edition: A FULL NEWS ROUND UP INCLUDING: - UK Holds Its Own In Web Presence - BT Secures £3.5bn Loan For 3G Network - Viruses - ISPs Should Offer Protection For Users Says Expert - National Hi-Tech Crime Unit Ask UK ISPs To Preserve Data - Subsidised Broadband Access For SMEs In Midlands - New-Look Connie In AOL’s Latest Ad Campaign - Ignite Boss Quits BT In Favour Of Returning To US - Broadband Is Too Cheap Say BT - AOL Boasts 31 Million Customers - BT And Providers Discuss How To Promote Broadband Britain INTERNATIONAL NEWS - ISPs told to raise cost of high-speed Net access ISP CONTENT FEATURE - Astrology, Dating and Shopping Malls FEATURE: Web Utility Review and more! To have ISP News delivered direct to your e-mail account, why not subscribe now at http://www.net4nowt.com/subs ? ISP News from Net4Nowt is the UK's only publication for all those interested in Internet Service Provision whether as an ISP or a consumer looking for the best deal. It exists not to just provide bi-weekly information, news and practical advice, but together with our website www.net4nowt.com, offers a forum for all those interested in Internet access. Once again we'd like to thank you for your support and would like to remind you that as long as Net4Nowt exists unbiased information on the ISP marketplace will always be close to hand. Yours sincerely, The Net4Nowt Team *To view the newsletter you will require the Adobe Acrobat reader. If you do not have this installed on your machine it can be downloaded for free from http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html. BT UK Online Contract Will Not Be Renewed The portal is a key part of the UK online initiative to enable everyone in the UK to gain access to the Internet by 2005, as well as providing a 24/7 one-stop-shop for all government information and services. Negotiations to renew the contract for BT failed to achieve a positive result and according to a spokeswoman, the Cabinet Office is now "evaluating numerous options" to take over the running of the service. In the meantime, UK Online is being hosted at another government location, with a service level agreement to the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office spokeswoman refused to confirm whether the frequent outages experienced by the service were responsible for the breakdown in negotiations. However, she did confirm that the contract did contain a service level agreement, which is very likely to have been broken. Uk Online also suffered setbacks in summer when one of the two servers hosting the portal ground to a complete halt. As a consequence, users trying to access the site where faced with the error message: "The page you requested is not valid," instead of being redirected by the remaining functioning server. Source: Silicon How To Detect And Protect Against Nimda Virus Opening an e-mail with a hidden attachment can cause infection, and has the potential to cause problems with files stored on the hard drive. Infected systems can open additional security holes, slow down networks, and cause bandwidth problems as the virus tries to spread itself. This information is courtesy of ZDNet/CNet UK and is intended to help you find out how you can detect and protect your pc against the virus. Remember by carrying out these simple tasks, you are helping to stop the virus from spreading further. Some of you are familiar with Updates.Com from CNet, those that already have the appropriate CatchUp software on your system are urged to run the Updates.com Security Fixes now by clicking here Those without the CatchUp facility can find out more information here If you do decide to install the software, please then run the updates and security fix mentioned above. (Please note that you must have the Catchup software installed on your system before you can run any related updates or fixes.) Updates.com Security Fixes can determine if you're vulnerable to Nimda. If the following vulnerabilities are detected by Updates, you may be susceptible to infection: For clients: Internet Explorer 5.5 Certificate Spoofing Vulnerability Internet Explorer 5 Certificate Spoofing Vulnerability Please read Microsoft Security Bulletin MS01-027 here For servers: IIS5 Web Server File Request Parsing Vulnerability IIS4 File Permission Canonicalization Vulnerability Please read Microsoft Security Bulletin MS00-057 here How To Disinfect your System from Nimda If you think your system may already be infected by the Nimda virus, download the Norton Nimda Removal Tool, which will scan your system for the virus. Also, make sure to update your virus definitions so that your current antivirus software can detect and protect against Nimda.You can download the Nimda Removal Tool here and you can also download the virus definition updates for Norton, Mcafee, Innoculate IT etc here Most of this information has been taken from the CNet updates.com newsletter "Special Alert" - Please update your system and virus software to protect your machine and help stop the spread of Nimda. The Decline Of Unbundled Loops Is Rising Ian Stirrat, BT's head of LLU, declared that the number of unbundled loops was 150 which is down from a previously announced peak of 163. This is an ironic situation as the who point of LLU was to allow broadband ISPs to compete with BT by putting their equipment in BT's local exchanges. Stirrat blamed the fall on the number of local loop unbundling companies such as OnCue that have gone out of business, dismantling or transferring their assets to others. However, a year and a half after the process began, the number of companies planning to use LLU has fallen from 40 to fewer than ten. Though intended as a way to bring DSL to consumers, LLU broadband now seems destined to become nothing more than an expensive niche product for business. Another irony is that BT Wholesale switched on its "volume automation" system, a highly advanced XML-based system built to deal with thousands of orders for unbundled lines every week - and this news comes at the same time of the switch on reports Silicon. Source: Silicon NTL To Pull Net Access On Former Cable And Wireless Customers Apparently, when NTL acquired the CWC during last year they had promised to keep the CWC Net access service running until November 30th 2001. NTL has now written to a number of forumer CWC customers informing them of the deadline date that their Net access will cease to exist. In a statement the company said: "We have been working hard to connect the ex-CWC network switches to the NTL backbone network. We are now installing the necessary modems and data equipment to provide this service. Unfortunately, at present, there are some areas in which it will not be possible to provide an Internet service. These customers have been contacted and informed of the situation. We will be contacting them again when an alternative service is available. "In the meantime we will be offering these customers a discount on their bill for a period of six months," the statement said. The Register reports that currently it is unclear exactly how many people will be without Net access from the end of November. Source:The Register Internet Will Become Unusable Warns Messagelabs Their press release here states that one in ten emails could be infected within seven years, the Nimda ‘hybrid’ is an example of how networks can be flooded and this warning comes as MessageLabs stops its one millionth virus. Messagelabs deals in scanning mail for potential viruses for corporate users, and they certainly know what chaos the Nimda virus is creating at the minute. Their theory is that eventually people will simply stop using email as a means of communication because of the huge number of viruses that will be circulating around the Internet. Overall current virus/email ratios are currently running at one in every three hundred, up from one in seven hundred in October last year. The rapid growth and sophistication of current viruses means that, on these trends, one in ten emails transmitted via the Internet would contain a virus by 2007/8, and as many as one in two by 2013. And these are just average figures - when ‘peak’ rates are taken into account, with a new virus released, the ratio will become much worse. Here are the MessageLabs predicted figures based on referring to virus trends between 1999 and 2001: 1 in 1400 emails contained a virus in 1999 1 in 700 emails contained a virus in 2000 1 in 300 emails contained a virus in 2001 1 in 100 emails predicted to contain a virus in 2004 1 in 10 emails predicted to contain a virus in 2008 1 in 2 emails predicted to contain a virus in 2013 3 of 4 emails predicted to contain a virus in 2015 For further reading, please click here. Interesting, but will the technology for dealing with the onset of viruses also not have increased by then ? Freedom2Surf Launches New Unmetered Service  Freedom2Surf Anytime will be available for £11.99 and offers 24/7 unmetered Internet access.Chris Panayis, managing director of Freedom2Surf commented, “We have spent a lot of time designing a service which will give users a fast, reliable and affordable solution to access the Internet whenever they want to, without having to worry about the cost implications of the amount of time they spend online.” Freedom2Surf Anytime also incorporates Cyber Patrol ISP, parental control software developed by Internet filtering experts SurfControl. Whenever a user accesses Freedom2Surf Anytime they will instantly benefit from Cyber Patrol ISP without having to install the software. Cyber Patrol ISP allows parents to create profiles easily for members of the family and offers four filtering levels to suit the differing needs of adults, older teens, younger teens and kids. Cyber Patrol ISP gives children the opportunity to experience the positive aspects of the Internet and helps protects them from the dangers of its darker side. The new FRIACO based package offers email, 20 MB of webspace as well as 5 MB of database space. In line with other major ISPs, Freedom Unlimited will have an automatic cut off after two hours of continuous use and ten minutes of inactivity. Users will be able to reconnect again after 5 minutes. First UK Commercial Satellite Broadband Launched Today The new service offers the same speeds as other entry-level DSL offerings, which currently is 256Kpbs uplink and 512Kbps downlink, but it will cost you a hefty £600 installation fee plus £180 per month thereafter. Although the speeds may be the same, the prices mean the service is more than four times as expensive as standard DSL, and because of the high prices, it is only thought to appeal to mainly SME's in areas where there is no DSL access. Currently, about 50 percent of the UK is unable to have standard DSL access, and the only other type of consumer that would consider this is obviously those who are wealthy enough to afford it. The service will be supplied by HOT Telecom, the UK subsidiary of Hughes Network Systems. Hughes dominates the world Very Small Aperture satellite terminals, or VSATs. BTopenworld recently signed a deal with Hughes's main rival, Gilat Network Systems, to provide satellite broadband for less than £100. The service recently started trials and is set for commercial launch in March 2002. Hughes has been offering DirecWay, a one-way broadband service that uses a telephone line for the uplink, for some years. It has also been providing broadband satellite connectivity on a bespoke basis to a number of clients, including the National Lottery operator, Camelot. Silicon also reports that Cedar Telecommunications are a subsidiary of the FTSE-listed Cedar Group PLC. This is certainly going to cost anyone who is interested - if you could afford it, would you consider trying it, or do you think that satellite broadband access cannot compete with standard DSL products? Source: Silicon ISP Demon Hit By Nimda Virus The Nimda virus is thought to be the culprit again, and many users are still experiencing difficulties with connections. Routing problems caused interference in the service for Demon ADSL consumers on Tuesday, with packet loss and connectivity issues arising for dial up users. One Demon user told silicon.com: "Every single leased-line customer is currently without a proper server, no mail, no web and it's been down for over 24 hours." Another customer said: "Incoming messages are getting stuck on Demon's Punt-2 SMTP server and you have to call its help line to get someone to intervene to unstick them."Demon executive director of operations Phil Male said: "There has been trouble over the last few days. We are being hit with strange packet patterns coming from outside our network." Male commented: "It's very hard to tell what the packets are. We are getting tons of connection requests that may be because of the dreaded Nimda virus. The majority of the packets are coming from the US which seems to confirm this." As reported earlier in the week, other ISPs like BT broadband are also experiencing problems from the feared Nimda virus which is becoming more widespread. BT and Demon are both trying to rectify the situation. Source: Silicon Childline Charity To Benefit From BTopenworld Survey The online survey is believed to be the UK's largest yet, and is aimed at anyone in the UK who uses the Internet, asking how people both use and perceive the Net. As well as the Childline contribution, completed surveys will be eligible for automatic entry into a draw that offers 25 lucky people the chance of winning one year's free Internet access from BTopenworld Anytime. The object of the survey is to find out more about what people want from the Internet as a whole so that BTopenworld can improve both their service and Internet experience for consumers, by understanding their needs. For the donations to take place, and to be entered in the competition, participants will have to complete a total of 8 questions and the survey has been streamlined to ensure that it will only take it few minutes. The survey will end on October 19th and BT will pledge a maximun of £15,000 to Childline, that means a lot of completed surveys are needed! Why not make a difference to Childline and take part in the survey by clicking here Watchdog Investigates BT Anytime Yet 'BT Anytime is like BT Sometimes' for some subscribers says Watchdog, who aired the story on their BBC program slot last night. They reported that one particular subscriber to BT Anytime, Judy Kasper, contacted them after feeling dissapointed with the service as she suffered long periods where she was unable to get online. She chose BT Anytime as her supplier because she needed a reliable round-the-clock connection as she runs an internet support group for women with breast cancer. On their website, BT Anytime define their product as: Anytime means just that. It allows you to surf the net whenever you like without paying any call charges. For a simple monthly fee you get unlimited calls to the Internet. So if you or your business are always going online then you will really appreciate Anytime - offering you more for your money and helping you get the most out of the Internet. However, it seems that this is not the case for some subscribers, and certainly not for Judy, as Watchdog reports: The system can’t cope with so many people online at the same time - even though they’re perfectly entitled to be there. So, BT has monitored how long it’s customers stay connected and now plans to deal with some of them differently. This week, BT sent Judy Kasper an e-mail. In future, she has to use a special new phone number to log on. Other high users are getting the same news. Though they don’t know it, 34,000 customers are being reclassified by BT. They’re being told their service won’t change, and their new dial up number should make things better, but this internal briefing document, given to Watchdog by one of BT’s own staff, tells a different story. It says customers are to be removed from the normal Anytime service. But makes clear they mustn’t be told this and stressed the new number should only given out to those on the hit list. The document also makes it clear that BT is expecting many customers to get the engaged tone, and tells staff to fob them off by simply saying try again. One of the BT Anytime employees informed Watchdog that heavy users are clogging up the system and he believes this to be the reason why BT are stamping down on them, adding that he feels uncomfy with the way BT are dealing with their customers. Another 'whistleblower' told Watchdog: “We’re effectively being told to deny that the service has changed. Thecustomer is paying for a service and that service is being altered - I think to their detriment.” After Judy Kasper downloaded the new dial up number she was given from BT, she told Watchdog that the service had declined further, infact she is rarely able to connect at all. Watchdog also put the number to the test and suffered similar connectivity problems. In response to the issues raised, BT informed Watchdog: “Btopenworld provides internet access to around 1.5 million people in the UK. Our Btopenworld Anytime service allows people to surf the web at anytime for just £14.99 a month with no additional call charges. We are aware some customers over the past few months may have experienced difficulty connecting to Btopenworld Anytime and have taken steps to tackle this. One of the issues is that a small proportion of customers regularly use the service for exceptionally long periods of time at peak hours, contributing disproportionately to congestion for the majority of customers. We are therefore taking action to manage our network to spread the load more effectively. As part of this some customers have been given a new number to access the service. All affected customers have received three emails, plus a letter to inform them of the change. We have also set up a helpline number to assist anyone who has difficulty making the transfer.” Watchdog also reported that apparently the BT Anytime staff are told not to persuade dissatisfied customers to stay, in the hope that they will upgrade to Broadband which costs the consumer almost three times as much as the Anytime product. ‘No Frills’ Unmetered ISP To Change Name Earlier in the week the newly launched ‘No-Frills’ ISP service Free2Surf came under attack from Freedom2Surf who stated that the ISP name was ‘too familiar’ to their registered trademark Freedom2Surf. Chris Panayis, managing director of Freedom2Surf said, ”Freedom2Surf has sought legal advice with a view to stopping the use of the name Free2Surf.” Now Paul Williams from Free2Surf has said that they will now be known as FREE24-7.net. “To continue on a good relationship will other ISP's we have today decided to revoke the use of the name Free2surf and change it to FREE24-7.net.” He added, “This new name will take the place of the former FREE2SURF and there will be no changes in the service we offer. We have seen an enormous uptake in our £7.99 unmetered Internet package but there are still about 3000 accounts left to be taken. We are keeping our service to a 10,000 user limit at present to ensure no connection or slow problems.” Lets hope 24-7Freecall don’t oppose the new name change. Nimda Worm Affects BT Broadband Users The worm is believed to be the culprit of the 'severe connection problems' that users reported to experience on Wednesday. A recorded message on the company's helpline told callers that it was experiencing problems, with users having trouble connecting to the Internet. The message said this could be "due to the recent outbreak of the Nimda virus." Both the Whitefield and the London Lodge Hill exchanges were affected. Surprisingly, the virus only surfaced the day previous, on Tuseday afternoon, and because of its ability to propogate the worm is already creating upheaval for many on the Net. The most volatile feature of the virus is its Code-Red like behaviour, in that it has the ability to exploit known weaknesses in Microsoft's IIS Web server software. Messagelabs, a company that provides email scanning for corporate consumers, managed to capture over 100 emails with the virus attatched within an hour of the first incident at 13.10GMT. ZDNet reports that BT was not available for comment during the time of going to press. Source: ZDNet BTopenworld To Provide Napster Replacement The new music download site is just one of the many high-speed 'destination' sites that BT openworld plan to take to new levels in the hope that they can increase revenues from DSL access. Major deals with record companies are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, with other new 'destination sites' such as downloadable games heading for a Christmas launch. BTopenworld chief executive Andy Green said: "There is a real demand for somewhere you can put your intellectual property, and be sure that you will get paid for it. Payment will either be added to users' phone bills or be made by payment card. There are a lot of cheap companies out there, but you have to be very careful when buying businesses like these - there's really not a lot of point buying it if all the people leave straight away." BTopenworld's half-price installation offer for ADSL came into force yesterday, after its massive advertising campaign via the TV, Internet and billboards, at a cost of between £4 and £6 million. Source: Silicon BT Chief Slams Oftel "Only five people will really make broadband work in the UK: BT, NTL, Telewest, AOL and Freeserve. We need to get the regulation cleaner... Oftel is protecting a lot of people who aren't going to move the game forward." Smaller broadband competitors who want to provide high-speed services to businesses via an unbundled local loop will struggle to keep up with competition claims Green. However, DSL company Fibernet tend to disagree as employee Nigel Pitcher is of the opinion that there is a definate future for other DSL companies in the market. "I think Andy Green is consumed with a religious focus on the consumer market, we're not providing a go-faster modem here. We're trying to take the premium voice services you can only get with a leased line down to the small and medium-sized business market." A spokeswoman for Oftel said to Silicon: "We are here to provide a level playing field, and when we have done that it is up to the market to determine how many players are left. From our point of view, the more players there are in the market, the better, as that provides more choice for the consumer." So, BT blame Oftel, and Oftel have been know to blame BT. Who do you think the blame lies with - BT or Oftel? Source:Silicon BT kits out 1,000th DSL exchange BT Wholesale claims that 60 per cent of UK households - 13 million homes - are now hooked up to a DSL-enabled exchange. SOURCE: The Register BT plans cutbacks on capital spending The company is likely to reduce its capital spending on its remaining fixed-line business by at least £100m as part of company-wide efforts to conserve cash, although a final decision has not yet been taken. This year's budget has already been cut by £400m from last year's level. BT's plans will further worry investors in embattled telecoms equipment maker Marconi. Marconi and Ericsson of Sweden are BT's two largest hardware suppliers, and in turn BT is Marconi's biggest customer accounting for around 20pc of Marconi's equipment sales. Part of the savings will come from reducing the prices of equipment bought. The company is also limiting its exposure to Marconi, should its financial worries deepen. It wants to ensure that, where Marconi is its sole supplier, it can meet the equipment need from a rival company. Separately, mobile phone company MmO2 , agreed a £3.5 billion loan facility, and received its first credit rating from Standard & Poor's and Moody's. S&P assigned a rating of BBB-, one notch above junk, while Moody's opted for the slightly higher Baa2. BT shares rose 22 to 398.5p. SOURCE: Telegraph Nimda Virus Alert The new virus, known as "Nimda", spreads by sending infected e-mails and also appears able to infect web sites, potentially hindering thousands of them. This is a new, fast-spreading internet worm that has been seen spreading in the wild The virus has attacked servers around the world that use Microsoft's Windows 2000 or Windows NT operating-system software. But the worm is also known to attack PCs. It comes through an e-mail message as an attached file. While the body of the e-mail may appear blank, it actually contains code to exploit vulnerabilities in the Windows programmes. Users of Windows 95, 98 or Me are not affected. The Nimda virus attacks much more quickly than the previously warned of Code Red virus, which struck computers earlier in the summer. The Nimda virus strikes at 16 known vulnerabilities within the Windows programs, whereas Code Red was limited to just one "hole". The virus is known to have taken down entire sites. The speed and vigour with which it spread has hampered antivirus experts' ability to stop it. They warn that computer users should not open e-mails with unexpected attachments. The panic over Code Red in August began when a variant of the original worm infected more than 250,000 machines in only a few hours. SOURCE: BBC AltaVista To Axe Jobs In UK There has already been 450 job losses announced from the company this year, and, in the statement, AltaVista says it will no longer place its US shopping.com site into the AltaVista search engine, resulting in a further 160 job cuts: "Shopping is a US-based service, therefore the impact on Europe will be minimal with reductions coming from the European Headquarters in the UK only." The report also says that a spokeswoman refused to give any further indications on how many UK job losses will be imminent during the apparent AltaVista shakeup. Source: The Register Broadband Ireland Set For Business When those firms who took part in the survey where asked if the lines where installed at the promised date given by the provider - 56 percent of firms said so, while 20 percent said they had to wait more than 12 weeks to have the lines installed. On the subject of satisfaction with their chosen telephone providers, only 47 percent said they were satisfied, with over 38 percent said they were unsatisfied. Related queries about the upcoming GPRS (2.5G) wireless technology which is due for launch in Ireland later in the year discovered that 28 percent knew very little about it and, surprisingly, over half of the respondents had not even heard of it. A third of those polled said they would never buy a 2.5G phone, and 44 percent said they were unlikely to do so. Source : NUA ISPs Reject Idea They Should Be Responsible For Viruses British ISPs gave reaction today to a report from Silicon outlining leading security expert David Perry's suggestion that ISPs should shoulder the responsibility for protecting their consumers against virus attacks. Perry claims that eighty per cent of viruses are passed directly via the Internet, and as viruses today are becoming more complex, the threat of virus attacks is becoming more of a problem. The issue of responsibility is now being questioned, and ISPs say they are unable to take an active stance in the fight against viruses unless consumers are willing to pay for the added protection. Tim Snape, council member of the ISP Association (ISPA), said: "Users have to realise that if they want these added value services then they will have to pay for them. If the consumers are happy to live with receiving "dirty" emails from their ISPs and refuse to pay more to clean it up, then that is the choice they make." Speaking on silicon.com, David Perry, director of public education at security firm Trend Micro, said ISPs should deliver users "clean water at the tap", if the industry was going to deal with the soaring virus scourge. ISPA's Snape responded by saying: "In the analogy of ISPs with water companies, we would say we are more concerned with the management of the piping, than the actual water itself. It is not an ISPs responsibility to monitor content." There is also concern from other ISPs that monitoring consumers content is considered to be 'inherently wrong and could be illegal' - stating that it is not their respnsibility to do so. A spokeswoman for AOL UK told Silicon: "We regard the integrity of our user's data as our top priority, and as such do not monitor or interfere with messages. We feel there are potentially unacceptable data protection issues with scanning users messages." Although this may not be legal overseas, and is also considered to be a grey area, the government do say that scanning emails for viruses is legal in the UK - yet filtering mail for viruses would not be 'technically practical' remarked a spokeswoman for ISP Claranet. There is the issue too, that some users don't even own virus software, and other users who do, never update the software, which not only renders it useless, but increases the spread of viruses. Now with the idea that ISPs should be doing the job, the problem will not go away without resolve. Hellen Omwando, associate analyst for Forrester Research, said that the issue of cost will create an outcry from ISPs, as filtering for viruses would require a 'heavy investment', and ISPs are just managing to sustain their businesses at the moment. It seems unfair that this should be placed at the door of our ISPs, who already offer links to virus software and updates. It is obvious from the comments left from the last report that users don't want their ISP scanning email, and this report also shows that ISPs do not wish to scan users mail... Source: Silicon ‘Expect More From Life’ With BTopenworld The advertising campaign comes as the company consolidates its two major Internet brands - BTinternet and BTopenworld broadband - into the one brand, BTopenworld. It also signals BTopenworld's first major marketing effort to build mainstream consumer awareness for the brand since its launch fourteen months ago. All the adverts will feature the new strap line ‘Look Forward’. From today, more than 1.5 million BTinternet and BTopenworld broadband consumer and business customers will see a redesigned BTopenworld web site, in separate versions for high-speed broadband and dial-up narrowband. The site will give all customers access to the widest range of BTopenworld Internet access packages, payment options and download speeds. All products will also be renamed BTopenworld. The TV campaign, kicking off on October 8th, which runs for one month, casts a humorous spotlight on BTopenworld's Anytime product. It portrays BTopenworld Anytime customers, who can access the Internet day or night for £14.99 per month with no additional call charges, wanting to do 'everything' at anytime, including a spot of DIY in the middle of the night. Andy Green, CEO of BTopenworld, said, "We're always looking at ways in which we can offer customers better service and value for money. Our new focus reflects our commitment to helping customers get the most out of the web and we're confident that it will add a great deal to our existing services." Ben Andradi, COO of BTopenworld, added, "Our broadband product portfolio has existed for a year, and has gone from strength to strength, positioning BTopenworld as the leading provider of ADSL in the UK. Recent research shows that 32% of UK online households will have broadband access by 2005, and we intend to lead this drive." The advertising campaign will also include online banner ads, TV, cinema, print and poster advertising. Only 32% will have broadband access by 2005? I would of thought that if the pricing was right there would be a lot more than just a third. That and the fact that you have to sign up to a 12 month contract will no doubt put many off having ADSL. If you don’t yet have a broadband connection, what are your reasons for sticking with a narrow-band dial-up connection? Free2Surf In Possible Legal Battle Freedom2Surf, which is also a registered trademark, has issued a letter of complaint to the directors of Free2Surf saying that it is too similar to their own company’s name. But Paul Williams from Free2Surf.net said that his company name was as close to the trademark as Freeserve is. Williams added, “We will take this through our legal department and see what comes out the other side. We will not bow down to this kind of attack. Possible thoughts for this attack are due to our aggressive pricing structures, other companies will be feeling the pressure with us launching our 24/7 service at £7.99 a month.” Chris Panayis, managing director, Freedom2Surf commented, “Freedom2Surf Plc has been trading as an ISP under this name for the past four years and has accordingly built up considerable goodwill and a significant customer base.” He continued, “When Freedom2Surf’s attention was drawn to Free2Surf’s supply of services it saw this as an infringement of its trademark registration and also a misrepresentation likely to damage the goodwill of Freedom2Surf’s business. This is why Freedom2Surf has sought legal advice with a view to stopping the use of the name Free2Surf.” Paul Williams from Free2Surf concluded, “We will, if instructed, change the name slightly but WILL NOT remove the service that has taken the Internet by storm.” BTopenworld Announces Drive To Increase ADSL Users  From today, both consumers and businesses will be able to benefit from a half price installation offer which runs until the end of the year, on the Home500, Business500 and Business 500+ services.BTopenworld will also be launching a campaign to promote ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services to both consumers and businesses, spending several millions on advertising and marketing. Andy Green, CEO of BTopenworld said, "Many thousands of people are already enjoying the benefits of high speed Internet via BTopenworld Broadband. Our half-price installation offer makes Broadband even more attractive for businesses and consumers, and our advertising campaign will ensure even more people benefit from the speed, convenience and great value of an always on high speed Internet connection." The offer applies to all orders taken from today (September 18th) until December 31st, with installation by January 31st, 2002. Customers will now have to pay just £74.99(inc. VAT) for connection to BTopenworld's Home500 product. Connection to Business500 will be £75(ex VAT) and £130(ex VAT) for Business 500Plus. Monthly rental charges remain unchanged. The announcement follows BT Wholesale's decision earlier this month to halve the connection charges for it BT IPStream500 product for three months, starting on October 1st. Other ISPs including Nildram, PlusNet and Zen have also cut their prices to match BTopenworld. Unmetered Users Complain Over 08002go Service The £9.98 per month service has in the past been highly praised by its users which is also available to non-BT customers. Although in the past few days many users have been complaining it is nearly impossible to get online and customers emails to the ISP have gone unanswered. One of our readers have pointed out that the accounts for Zone Corporation, the company behind 08002go, are 3 weeks overdue according to Companies House. This has in effect set the alarm bells ringing amongst users sparking rumours of the demise of the unmetered service. A number of customers have also contacted us saying that their credit card accounts have had been debited for more than one months subscription. One customer told us, “You may not yet be aware, though I fail to comprehend how, that the ISP 08002go.com appears to be in serious difficulties. Users state that they have been quitting the functionary in droves, and many new signatories are so totally confused having just parted with a year's subscription. I myself was advised by my bank to change my debit card, as the ISP has been drawing two, three, and more months subs in one day from users. All of this, on top of the unavailability of the 24/7 service for a week now.” From reading the comments in our discussion forum, a few have today been able to connect successfully. Hopefully this is a sign of an improvement. A statement dated 14th September on the 08002go web site states: Some of our customers may be experiencing difficulties connecting to 08002go.com. This is due to essential engineering works on our network. We aim to keep this disruption to a minimum and hope to resume a normal service by the middle of next week. 08002go.com apologise for the inconvenience that this may cause.”We have contacted 08002go in the past couple of days but have not yet received a reply before going to press. UK Holds Its Own In Web Presence It has been found that the UK can hold its own when it boils down to making its presence felt on the WWW, as almost a quarter of global web traffic was directed at UK websites throughout August. Although this figure was down from July's high of 34 per cent, the UK looks to be gaining ground again. Last week, it took 34.6 per cent of all internet traffic. Site sessions were also up, with users spending an average of six minutes eight seconds browsing each site last week, a minute over August's figure of five minutes seven seconds. Not surprisingly, the busiest day on the Internet continues to be Saturday, although Sunday is not far behind. Weekend surfing is popular it seems, but this could easily be due to the fact that during the week less people surf as work is obviously a priority. Newly-launched UK analysis firm Hitwise found that computer and Internet related sites take up a 43 per cent chunk of all page views, with news and media sites like msn.co.uk and uk.yahoo.com finding their place as the second most popular surf. Auction site eBay took August's number three slot as most popular site, while search engines search.msn.co.uk and lycos.co.uk took positions four and five respectively. Geek-friendly search engine google.com was shoved down to number nine. This information is based upon the monitoring of over 30 per cent of the UK's active Internet population on an anonymous basis and ranking websites in 150 different categories. Source: VNunet BT Secures 3.5bn Loan For 3G Network Barclays, Citigroup, Deutsche, HSBC, JP Morgan and the Royal Bank of Scotland combined are to provide BT with a 3.5bn loan to aid the building of the 3G mobile network. It is reported that the substantial amount of money is being handed over in two instalments, and the new 3G company may be worth a staggering £15bn, a total of 2.5bn less than BT's current debt of 17.5bn. Source: Silicon Viruses - ISPs Should Offer Protection For Users Says Expert The reality is that a massive eighty per cent of viruses are acclaimed as coming direct from the Internet according to leading security expert David Perry, director of public education for Trend Micro and a former adviser to the US government on computer security. The question is, who should be held responsible for helping in the fight against viruses? - The consumer perhaps by keeping the software updated? The av software company, by incorporating and utilising the latest technology during the development of their software? According to expert Perry, it is the ISPs themselves who need to take responsibility for protecting their customers from viruses. Perry claimed that ISP screening is the only way to halt an exponential rise in virus infections and called on service providers to offer "clean water at the tap" for their customers. Currently, the battle against viruses is being lost because it is too difficult to keep users up to date with the latest anti-virus software, Perry said: "The problem today is not the detection of new viruses, its the deployment of viruses to 300 million internet users. I can't deploy to 300 million users, but I can certainly deploy to 10,000 ISPs." Senior anti-virus technologist for security firm MessageLabs, Alex Shipp, agreed with Perry's sentiments, and told silicon.com: "We will continue to see internet performance degrade until something is done. I don't think anything will change, however, until this problem is tackled at ISP level." If things carry on the way they are, at the current growth rate, MessageLabs predicts there will be one virus for every good email in less than 10 years - compared to one in every 300 emails carrying a virus today. Shipp is of the opinion that fears over the cost of deploying such technology is the reason ISPs are holding back, although some think that it is due to concerns over the legal aspect of liability that warrents no further protection from ISPs. There is a limited number of ISPs do offer anti-virus protection for users, but unfortunatley this is not the case with many free consumer-led ISPs. Who do you think should shoulder the responsibility? Should the ISP in combination with the av software company and the consumer work together to help combat this problem? Source: Silicon National Hi-Tech Crime Unit Ask UK ISPs To Preserve Data Now, as a precautionary measure, the National Hi-Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU) have asked British Internet Service Providers to preserve all traffic data relating to logs of emails sent and received since 11 September for the next month. It is hoped that this information will be of help in the current terrorist investigations, however, to access the full content of the emails, a seperate interception warrant is needed. The Data Protection Act usually prevents ISPs from retaining data about their customers, despite ongoing efforts by the European Council to force communications providers to keep records of all voice and data communications of their citizens for up to seven years. Under current data protection principles, traffic data can only be retained for 30 days -- the current legal period deemed acceptable for billing purposes. The data then has to be erased or made anonymous as soon as this need is fulfilled. ZDNet also reports that last week AOL and EarthLink both confirmed that they had handed over the relevant traffic logs. Source: ZDNet Subsidised Broadband Access For SMEs In Midlands The project named CW2000 has been developed by Coventry University, and currently has a substantial £7 million to help make a 'competitive' difference to companies in Coventry and Warwickshire - £3 million having been contributed by the European Regional Development Fund. Marco Marrocco, Telecoms Manager at Leeds-based ISP Firstnet Services Ltd, which is partnering CW2000, said: "By helping to resolve the cost issues of Information and communications infrastructure and services, the CW2000 scheme allows smaller companies to compete on a level playing field with larger businesses." The subsidised broadband access is not favoured to a particular type, it depends more on the location the companies are situated, and they could be hooked up to either ADSL or fixed wireless. Some companies may even be eligible for the cost of their broadband access to be covered for a full year, although there are strict guidlines to follow along with meeting a defined criteria for being accepted. However, it is reported that the scheme is proving popular, and there are negotiations currently taking place between CW2000 and NTL to implement business-class cable modem service. Source :The Register New-Look Connie In AOL’s Latest Ad Campaign  Connie's new look reflects the fact that the Internet and online consumers are evolving at such a fast rate. Connie, who is played by actress Rachel Willis, has had a makeover for the new campaign and now sports a modern hairstyle and a stylish new dress featuring highlights of the AOL service.The new AOL advertisements commence from today on terrestrial and satellite television. The 30-second commercial and a ten-second cut-down version will run for six weeks. It shows the new-look Connie wearing a dressing gown and choosing her new outfit from a lengthy clothes rail with the help of a sales assistant. Connie then emerges from a changing room wearing her new asymmetric virtual dress and asking "So what do you think?" As she clicks her fingers, the dress comes alive with images of the AOL service. The camera dives into her dress and zooms in on a family, with a young boy at a PC. AOL UK CEO Karen Thomson, who was responsible for the introduction of the Connie concept in 1998 while the company's Marketing Director, said, "Connie is one of the most recognised faces of TV advertising and we often get comments from people about her. This campaign reveals a more modern look for our genie - she has already helped AOL to become one of the most well-known and trusted online brands in the UK and we believe that the new-look Connie will be equally recognisable to potential and existing members." Ignite Boss Quits BT In Favour Of Returning To US It is reported that Mockett wishes to return to the US to take up the position of CEO at a North American public company. He will leave BT in November, and is to be succeeded by Andy Green, who is currently CEO of BT Openworld. New ISP Review System Goes Live Your review will go live once we have checked it (sorry, past experience indicates such programmes are open to abuse - which we hope to minimise). In addition, you can click a new "ISP News" option to view news related to the specific ISP. This is currently in beta testing mode so any feedback will be welcome. A Nation In Mourning Countries all over the world are united in their grief and today has been declared a day of mourning. We ask you all to join us in a 3 minute silence at 11am as a mark of respect. NTL Warned Yet Again Over Misleading Ads The Register reports that yesterday this month's adjudications showed no less that four more complaints against NTL - all upheld - from a total of five advertisements. It was guilty on several counts of advertising a service in areas where it wasn't available, hiding smallprint and misleading customers to believe they could access to the Internet on one deal when in fact only certain sites were available. During the last 12 months, NTL has been infringing the ASA's rules and this is now the tenth time complaints have been upheld and the company has been found guilty. It has been consistently warned to run its ads through the ASA's Committee of Advertising Practice Copy Advice but a spokeswoman told us that NTL didn't do so in this case. The process in a voluntary one. NTL seem unwilling to comply like other similar companies and its no wonder the ASA has got visibly annoyed, being "concerned at NTL's poor level of compliance." Unfortunatley as the market is self-regulated, the ASA is limited in its powers of action, but they are viewing other alternative ways of dealing with NTL. However, there is a 'last resort' option that the ASA has only carried out 13 times since 1998 which can lead to the company being prosecuted - and that is to report NTL to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The Register decided to actually ask the OFT what they could do about NTLs obvious ignorance within their advertising methods: It was already aware of NTL's track record and the latest infringement. A spokesman told us that under an EC directive on misleading advertising, it can take a company to court and order it not to publish similar advertisements again. This directive only applies to printed material however and does not include TV or radio. It only applies if there is "an economic detriment to consumers". The OFT is not able to impose a fine on any company but if that company were to continue printing banned advertising it would be held in contempt of court. The Register was informed that in such cases, the OFT would "seek voluntary assurances" from a company that it won't repeat such infringements, before taking such action. Something needs to be done about NTLs lack of customer care in their advertising statements - surely the constant warnings would be enough for a change in the way they project their business to the public? Source: The Register Major ISPs Help FBI Track Down Terrorists It is unclear what the FBI are hoping to find, but both America Online and EarthLink are helping to trace any suspects who communicated via email . This move confirms ealier reports of electronic surveillance being more prominent, and there are rumours that the FBI will deploy its controversial Carnivore monitoring system in the project. The Carnivore system can be used to monitor email, web navigation and chat room conversations using the numerical ID tags that identify each computer connected to the internet. However, Nicholas Graham, a spokesperson for America Online from parent company AOL, denies any reports that such a system has been installed, although it is apparent that the FBI have approached other major ISPs with that intention. EarthLink's VP of communications, Dan Greenfield, said the company had been issued with a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). FISA ensures the FBI, CIA, US military and other law-gathering agencies are not allowed a snooping free-for-all on the public. Any warrants issued under FISA relate to leaked information to foreign governments so require less proof than a warrant issued for a criminal case. The only people in the US able to request FISA warrants are the directors of the FBI and CIA plus the Secretaries of State and Defense. It is also reported that experts are uncertain just how helpful the tracking system will be in uncovering information, as Carnivore is unable to locate previous internet communications, only current traffic travelling to and from suspect Internet addresses. Source: Silicon Freeserve Fails To Expand in ISP Market It is reported that the total number of people using Freeserve as their ISP has remained around the same for the past year, as the latest figures from the French company Wanadoo show that Freeserve had 2.03m subscribers at the end of August, compared to 2.05m at the same time last year. These figures show a definate stagnation for the ISP, as, according to Oftel, the number of UK households with internet access has nearly doubled from 6 million to a staggering 10 million in the past 12 months. Chief executive of Wanadoo, Nicolas Dufourcq, does not seem too worried about the apparent failure to expand. He said: "I have no grey hair. I am not losing sleep. Everything is going OK. It is inevitable when a company has gone through an integration process that it loses a bit of momentum. That is part of the price of buying a company which everyone accepts." "Nor did we want to capture a large number of users that are heavy loss-making clients. It is not worth pouring money into marketing to get loss-making clients until we have flat-rate access to BT's network. AOL may be growing fast, but they are losing mountains of money to do it." He claimed that Freeserve was bought with the hope of utilising the new service from BT that allows ISP to access BT's national network for a flat-rate fee instead of paying per minute. According to the report, other rivals jumped in and stole the market share while the company waited for BT's new flat rate offer, which came 6 months later than promised - although Freeserve's telecoms supplier was also seen to be at fault: "Energis was late in implementation of a new network for Freeserve, but we expect it to begin operating in November. After that, we will stop buying minutes for our clients and will pay a fixed price which will be much cheaper." said Dufourcq. Currently there are about 27pc of Freeserve's customers, equal to 550,000 people, who are already using an unmetered service. The £1.6 billion acquisition of Freeserve was completed by Wanadoo in February, when shares of the French company were trading at Eu11.10 (£7), but they have since fallen to around Eu4.20. Source: Telegraph.co.uk V21 Launches ‘No Frills’ Unmetered Company Costing just £7.99 per month, Free2Surf provides users with 24/7 unmetered access with no other call charges. There is also a 4 hour cut-off period and ISDN dual channel bonding is said to be on its way soon. Paul Williams for Free2Surf said, “We are offering this service to enable users to access the web even cheaper than ever before. We are able to keep the price at £7.99 due to not giving any other services.” The ‘no frills’ service, which is also expected to soon launch its dedicated game servers, is only open to the first 10,000 users. Totalise Unmetered Update Currently their unmetered service has not yet begun as Totalise have been testing the product thoroughly and are waiting for enough feedback from those taking part in the trials before releasing the service to consumers. Their aim of the tests is to ensure that the end product is successful and represents a quality service, giving the customer value for money. Totalise have placed an apology on their website for the delay of the unmetered service, which also explains the situation further,- if anyone is interested in reading more then please click here. Broadband Is Too Cheap Say BT At the Carriers World industry conference in Cannes last week, Sally Davis, president for products and marketing at BT Ignite informed leading carriers and content providers: "Current broadband connectivity prices are not high enough, and the business case for DSL is not proven. As an industry we haven't been as innovative as we could have been, and maybe we could do more with content partners to price broadband effectively. " Vnunet also reports that Davis said that BT Ignite is now focusing on preparing the 'plumbing' to provide the correct network for other service providers to deliver business applications such as intranets and extranets. However, Davis did admit that overall the industry has a long way to go in relation to interactive services. It seems that for Britain, broadband has a long way to go too ... Source: Vnunet Freeserve In Football SMS Deal TEAMtalk will provide SMS services covering all 134 teams in the UK Leagues, from Manchester United to Halifax and Celtic to East Fife. The deal also sees TEAMtalk designing and hosting a web site where the 4.5 million unique users of Freeserve can register to receive football alerts, sent to them via SMS to their mobiles across any network. Tim Phillips, Director of Access Development at Freeserve commented, “Our SMS deal with TEAMtalk is part of a wider sports campaign that will leverage Freeserve’s increasing associations with sport. We asked TEAMtalk to deliver our SMS services because in addition to offering the most in-depth coverage for all UK teams, they could also offer our users a choice of 3 football packages and the ability to deliver over any mobile network.” Users will have the choice of three different services. For £8.50 a month, the news & scores service includes the delivery of the top daily story for the user’s chosen team in addition to score updates, half time and full time results. News only and scores only services are also available for £5 a month. BP Forecourts To Offer BTinternet Anytime CDs Under the terms of the deal, BP will distribute over 1.5 million free BTinternet Anytime registration discs across 500 of BP's fully owned outlets in the UK, including the newly launched BP 'Connect' stores. It follows a successful trial programme that took place in May, which achieved a 5% conversion rate. The alliance follows similar alliances that BTopenworld has forged with other retailers including HMV, Toys'R'Us and Iceland. Chris Jones, head of UK channel distribution at BTopenworld , said, "In securing this partnership, BTopenworld is expanding into a previously untapped but growing market, recognising that consumers are increasingly relying upon forecourt retail outlets to purchase many day-to-day goods." Nutshell Launches Pre-Paid Internet Cards Before teaming up with Banana to offer these ‘Netcards’, Net in a Nutshell commissioned some consumer research, the results of which showed a real demand for pay-as-you-go Internet access. 62% of respondents thought the Netcards were a ‘good idea’, with a third of all respondents stating that they were ‘likely’ or ‘very likely’ to purchase Internet cards when available. “We have listened to what consumers have been telling us, during the research, and tailored the Netcard offer to suit their needs,” explains Scott Ide, CEO of Nutshell. “The cards are incredibly simple to use, easy to buy and reasonably priced,” he continues, “which really opens up the Internet to everyone.” Nutshell and Banana Netcards will be widely available at over 20,000 News Agencies throughout the UK. The survey showed that 68% selected newsagents as being the preferred type of retail outlet. The cards offer unlimited access to the Internet for either 14 days or 30 days. The cards are valid from the time they are activated until the end of the specified period selected by the user. Within this period of time, there is no limit on the amount of time spent online. Would-be Internet users no longer need to give personal details such as credit card numbers and addresses before accessing the World Wide Web. The cards are also great for school/university holidays. Students may be connected to the web at school or college and wish to continue accessing the Internet during the holidays. With Netcards they can do this and surf the net 24/7, without signing up to an ongoing ISP. The cards are priced at £10 (14 days access) and £15 (30 days access) and will be available throughout the UK from September 15th. UPDATE: The pricing above is in fact incorrect. The pricing should read £5 (14 days) and £10 (30 days) making the offer even better value for money. AOL Boasts 31 Million Customers | ||