Vodafone falls foul of ASA for mobile broadband ads

Complaints against two Vodafone mobile broadband advertisements in the national press have been upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Claims regarding Vodafone’s mobile broadband relaiblity and speed were questioned by T-Mobile, Hutchison 3G UK Ltd and a member of the public.

Although Vodafone said it had based its claims on the results of an Independent Network Benchmarking Trial carried out by LCC International, the ads did not make it clear what the basis of the claims was, and the complaints were still upheld.

Vodafone have been told that these advertisements must not appear again in their current form and to make clear the basis of their claims in future.

See the ASA website for more details on this case.

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

Virgin Media announces date for 3rd quarter results

Fibre optic broadband, phone and TV company Virgin Media have announced a date for the issue of their third quarter results – it will be Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 8am UK time, 3am ET. The company will also host a conference call for analysts and investors to discuss the results on November 6, at 2pm UK time, 9am ET.

Virgin Media website.

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

BT Vision cuts price of its Value Pack viewing packs

BT Vision – BT’s on demand TV service for BT home broadband users – has cut the price of its TV Value Packs for the first 3 months of a 12 month contract. The offer runs until 05/01/09.

There are three Value Packs – Bronze, Silver and Gold. The Value Packs offer two standard viewing packs (TV and TV Replay) plus two or more of the viewing packs Kids, Music, Sport and PictureBox (films). The Sports pack includes the option of taking Setanta Sports 1, althoguh there is an extra cost of a £10 viewing card for this.

Bronze (TV and TV Replay plus two extra packs) is half price at only £7 a month for 3 mnonths, then £14 a month.

SIlver (TV and TV Replay plus three extra packs) is £11 a month for 3 months then £18 a month.

Gold (TV and TV Replay plus all four extra packs) is £13 a month for 3 months then £20 a month.

Connection, and the V-box, are currently free with BT Vision Value Pack contracts.

BT Vision.

BT Total Broadband (BT home broadband packages).

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

Microsoft moves into cloud computing with Microsoft Azure

Microsoft has announced that it is developing Microsoft Azure, which will allow users to store applications and data “in the cloud”.

The cloud is the online environment, and cloud computing – of which Microsoft Azure is a part – means storing applications online. However Microsoft’s service will still allow users to store data and applications on their own PCs if they wish.

Microsoft Azure will be released at thee same time as Windows 7.

other companies are already far more active in the cloud computing arena – including Amazon (with its Elastic Cloud Service) and Google (with its online applications including Google Docs).

Read more about this on the BBC News website.

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

The internet brings families together finds American survey

An American survey has found that the web and related technologies are actually bringing families together rather than driving them apart.

Although mobile phones obviously link people, it had often been said that the internet – being an essentially solitary activity – was divisive rather than inclusive.

However this survey – carried out by the Pew Internet and American Life Project – discovered that mobile phones and the web brought families together more. Over half of parents said that they would browse the web with their children. And over half of respondents said that the web made it easier to keep in touch with relatives living far away and that their relationships with them were improved. Additionally nearly half said it improved communication with people they lived with.

The results were particularly striking for nuclear families, who were more likely to have high speed broadband and more than one mobile phone. On the downside, families with high technology usage tended to eat meals together less.

Read more about this in The Telegraph.

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

Broadband take-up 20 percent down on expectations as recession looms

Point Topic reports that the installation of new broadband lines has slowed considerably in the July to September quarter. In fact take-up has dropped to 20 percent below what would have been expected.

Back in April 2008, Point Topic predicted that the second half of 2008 would see 800,000 new broadband lines installed. Initially this looked likely, with June 2008 figures just ahead of the forecast.

However Q3 slumped considerably with only 313,000 broadband lines installed – well below the 390,000 previously predicted for those three months.

This means that it is likely that businesses and homes that would have gone for broadband will either stick with dial up or do without an internet connection altogether – and it doesn’t bode well for the Government’s wish to drive digital inclusion (whereby all children would have access to a computer and internet acess at home).

Read more about the slump in broadand take-up on the Point Topic website.

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

Setanta Sports offers half price satellite Sports TV

Setanta Sports is offering its sports satellite TV service at half price for two months. This means a satellite subscription is now only £6.50 a month. After two months the price reverts to £12.99 a month.

There is no 12 month contract with Setanta Sports – subscribers join for a minimum of two months.

Setanta Sports offers 46 Exclusively Live Barclays Premier League games and 60 Exclusively Live Clydesdale Bank Premier League games including every Old Firm Derby, live and exclusive, plus away England World Cup Qualifiers.

Setanta Sports.

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

Point Topic lowers its broadband take up forecast for 2009

A recent 20% drop in the number of new broadband lines being installed compared to previous forecasts has led Point Topic to amend its predictions for 2009.

The new forecast for new broadband line installations next year is now 1.1 million, which is 200,000 fewer then they originally thought.

This should mean that we end 2009 with around 18.4 million broadband lines in Britain. This is around 300,000 down on what was previously expected.

Visit the Point Topic website.

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

PlusNet offers free wireless router with entry-level broadband package

PlusNet has launched a new offer whereby anyone signing up for PlusNet Broadband Option 1, which is £9.99 a month, will receive a free 4-port wireless router.

PlusNet Broadband Option 1 has up to 8Mb download speed, 2GB a month usage with free overnight usage, and a 90 day free trial for new customers switching from another broadband provider.

This offer ends on 22 November 2008 and is available only on 12 month contracts.

PlusNet Broadband Option 1

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder

BT Broadband & BT Vision bundle launched at half price

BT are now offering BT broadband and their on-demand TV service, BT Vision – in one package. It includes BT Option 1 broadband, and the BT Vision Bronze TV value pack.

For the first three months this broadband and TV bundle is half price at £14.95 a month, then it reverts to £29.99 a month.

The broadband service includes up to 8Mb download speed, a 10GB monthly usage allowance, 250 Openzone wifi minutes per month and a free wireless BT HomeHub.

The BT Vision service is on demand TV that you can pause, record and rewind. It includes US and UK TV, including Lost, The Sopranos, Desperate Housewives; the TV Replay service; and a further two viewing packs out of Kids, Music, Sports (including Setanta Sports 1), and PictureBox (films).

More about BT Broadband & BT Vision

By Sarah at UK Broadband Finder