Monthly Archives: July 2008

BT has released a report on internet use in the UK entitled BT 21st Century Life Index which makes very interesting reading and bodes well for the future of UK broadband. The report was produced after surveying 2,000 people across the UK to try and track how technology has changed the lives of people [...]

The recent announcement that Sky and Universal Music Group have signed a deal to work on a ground breaking subscription and music download service has opened up a whole new market for the music industry. Universal vice president of digital Rob Wells believes that the future for music will be best served as part [...]

Richard Branson has hit the headlines again with news that Virgin Media expects to deliver mobile broadband with a speed of 200MB by 2012. The plan has taken some of the gloss off its recent announcement of a fibre optic network which would service 10 million homes by 2012, offering internet broadband speeds of [...]

This has been a controversial issue over recent months with many broadband users reporting that their speeds are often much slower than those advertised. The speeds advertised are the maximum possible for that particular service, but the further you are from the nearest telephone exchange the less chance of ever experiencing the advertised maximum speed.

The term unlimited download can be misleading in some circumstances as many ISPs have small print in their contracts to control usage. When they see a surge in use they reserve the right to stack requests, affectively queuing all request to ensure their servers are not compromised.

The majority of broadband connections in the UK are part of unbundling packages with BT, whereby Internet Service Providers pay to BT for the use of their lines to connect to your home. BT has seen a rise in the cost of maintaining broadband connections in the UK and requested that they are allowed to [...]

If you think of your internet connection as a pipe, the broadband equivalent of the pipe is much wider than the dial-up pipe. This allows more information to be sent in one go rather than having to queue the data, which slows the delivery speed.

Otherwise known as Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, ADSL is a data communications technology which allows data to be transferred over copper telephone lines at speeds not available to conventional modems. In many ways ADSL is a quick fix until the UK’s fibre optic telephone network is completed, whenever that may be.

While there are some Internet Service Providers who still offer dial-up services, they are very much in the minority. Many experts forecast that dial-up internet services will soon disappear from the market unless required in exceptional circumstances.