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18
Aug 2009 |
The price of broadband has plummeted in the last four years, but why has this happened and can it continue?
In September 2005 a process known as "local loop unbundling" (LLU) started in the UK. The process, instigated by the regulator, required BT to allow competing companies to install their own equipment in BT telephone exchanges.
This meant providers did not have to sell on BT's wholesale broadband service and could therefore offer very competitive prices. The result has been nothing short of extra... |
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18
Aug 2009 |
British Telecom is claiming the Wi-Fi crown for biggest supplier of such connectivity in the UK by announcing it now has hotspots at some 500,000 locations.
The half a million sites include BT Openzone hubs and its dozen wireless city initiatives, in addition to big name users such as BA, Hilton hotels and Starbucks.
“We've reached a significant milestone in making Wi-Fi available in places where people want to get online,” said Gavin Patterson, BT Retails’ chief executive, in a statement.
“As the ... |
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14
Aug 2009 |
TELSTRA has produced a $4.07 billion profit for the 2009 financial year, but new chief executive David Thodey has abandoned most of his predecessor's 2010 guidance targets as the realities of the economic slowdown, and the company's declining fixed-line revenues, kicked in.
The giant telco posted a 10.3 per cent rise in profit for the 12 months ended June 30, up from $3.69bn a year earlier, to exceed market forecasts of $3.82bn.
Revenue slipped below the company's guidance of 3-5 per cent growth, risi... |
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14
Aug 2009 |
The Obama administration made a national priority of spreading high-speed Internet access to every American home and offered stimulus money to help companies pay for it, but the biggest network operators are staying away from the program.
As the Aug. 20 deadline nears to apply for $4.7 billion in broadband grants, AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are unlikely to go for the stimulus money, sources close to the companies said.
Their reasons are varied. All three say they are flush with cash, enough to upgrade ... |
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14
Aug 2009 |
Zer01 Mobile, a mobile virtual network enabler, says it has severed its business relationship with Buzzirk Mobile for distribution services based upon breach of contract.
The agreement for distribution services was originally announced in May. However, due to what it calls violations of the agreement made by Buzzirk, Zer01 Mobile has ended its relationship with the company.
The news comes as Zer01 Mobile has been embroiled in controversy regarding claims that the company couldn’t deliver on its promis... |
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13
Aug 2009 |
The damage caused in Asia by Typhoon Morakot this week will fortunately not affect Australian internet users. Netizens in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and the Philippines suffered slow connectivity as undersea landslides damaged fibre optic cables connecting them to websites hosted thousands of miles away in the United States.
Matt Walker, an analyst at Ovum, said that typhoon damage impacted traffic between Asia and Australia, and that "it definitely could affect capacity and internet performance [from ... |
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13
Aug 2009 |
Safaricom, Kenya's leading mobile firm, announced Thursday it has bought a second local WiMAX operator in order boost its product range.
Michael Joseph, CEO, said his telecoms company had bought 100 percent of Packetstream Data Networks although declined to disclose the value of the transaction.
'It complements our acquisition of 51 percent in Onecom,' Joseph told a news conference while adding that the transaction still needed regulatory approval.
Safaricom purchased Onecom, which is 35 percent ow... |
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11
Aug 2009 |
Police, local councils and other U.K. public authorities made more than half-a-million requests to see citizens' communications data in 2008, according to a watchdog report.
The requests averaged out at about 1,500 a day, according to the report by interception of communications commissioner Sir Paul Kennedy.
On Monday, Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary Chris Huhne criticized the government for allowing that volume of communications data gathering.
"It cannot be a justified response to the pro... |
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11
Aug 2009 |
Environmentalists rejoice, T-Mobile is going to start charging customers for having their bills printed out and mailed to them.
According to TmoNews, beginning on Sept. 12th, T-Mobile will be charging customers $1.50 per account for paper billing. In case that isn’t bad enough on its own, this is on tope of the $1.49 the company already charges for detailed paper billing, so if you really want a hard copy of your bills, it is now going to cost you a total of an extra $3.49 a month.
The new charge is d... |
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7
Aug 2009 |
British Telecom is encountering problems in London with the rollout of its new fibre broadband network, which has cabling using street cabinets for its deployment, and residents in a Muswell Hill aren't happy.
The project is to allow broadband to run at speeds of up to 40Mbps, yet a few residents have complained to the council - the London Borough of Haringey - that the 1.8 metre high cabinets are obstructing the pavements.
"These cabinets are unsightly and are taller than most garden walls," says Joh... |
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6
Aug 2009 |
Majority of Kenya’s Internet service providers have no capacity to supply downstream consumers with fibre optic bandwidth, leaving room for a few players, who may use the advantage to keep prices high.
It has emerged that only six ISPs – mainly the big telecoms firms – have the right of use with the TEAMs cable or have bought capacity at Seacom.
They are Telkom Kenya, Kenya Data Networks, Safaricom, Jamii Telecoms, AccessKenya, Essar Telecoms and Wananchi Group.
Connecting consumers to the fibre op... |
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6
Aug 2009 |
According the the British telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, broadband has now reached 68 percent of British households, of which mobile broadband accounts for a significant portion. This is compared to the same period last year, where the percentages was 58. Also noted was the fact that the average time spent per user per day on the internet has leaped from 9 minutes to 25 minutes - almost triple.
Ofcom expects this growth rate to continue, especially seeing as mobile broadband has proven to be greatl... |
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4
Aug 2009 |
Kenya’s third fibre optic operator, the East Africa Submarine System (EASSy), on Thursday upped the ante in the ongoing internet pricing debate by accusing its rivals of deliberately denying consumers the benefits of broadband connection through exorbitant pricing.
The company, whose fibre optic cable is expected to land at the Kenyan coast in June next year, termed Kenya’s internet market as an oligopoly that lacks competitive pressure that would yield better pricing.
Chris Wood, the chief executive ... |
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4
Aug 2009 |
Virgin Media has pledged to cut through the miscommunication around broadband speeds, launching its new range of non-fibre packages with the promise that it will not mislead anyone over the true speed of their internet connection.
Ofcom's survey into the true speed of broadband connections in the UK was something of a coup for Virgin – which topped the tests by offering an average of around 80 per cent of its promised speeds.
However, this was partly due to the company's impressive fibre network, and ... |
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4
Aug 2009 |
The European Union has re-established its lead over the United States in the use of high-speed computer connections, making the Continent “the world leader in broadband Internet,” the European Commission said on Tuesday.
Viviane Reding, the commissioner who oversees the Internet, said that the spread of the technology could help power the European economic recovery and that continuing the development of high-speed Internet could create two million jobs by 2015. But she also warned that obstacles needed t... |
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