The Research firm, YouGov released its latest findings on the impact of mobile broadband in recent times. The survey conducted by the research firm shows that at least one out of every eight mobile broadband subscribers has been using it as an alternative mode of internet access or just switched from their current fixed broadband provider to a mobile broadband package.

Mobile broadband has been looked upon as a technology that is used to supplement to the traditional broadband technologies like ADSL or cable broadband. However, interestingly, some people have taken mobile broadband in place of fixed broadband services as new mobile broadband deals come with higher speeds and large download limits.

The report also shows that a few respondents (5 %) who use both ADSL or cable broadband services with mobile broadband have been thinking to leave their fixed line broadband ISP after a year or so and to completely adopt to the mobile broadband technology for their needs.

However, the majority of the broadband & mobile users (64%) still think that mobile broadband is just an supplement to their current ADSL or cable broadband service and it may take some more time for mobile broadband to completely replace the existing fixed line broadband internet services.

Among the mobile broadband users, 4 percent of the subscribers get the mobile broadband service from their companies while three percent of the mobile broadband users are teleworkers who work away from the office.

Despite the stronger growth visible in mobile broadband market, significant number of mobile broadband users (25%) complain over the inconsistent speeds, the hefty cancellation fee and the expensive monthly cost of a mobile broadband deal.

Marek Vaygelt of YouGov has commented:
"Customers' find Mobile Broadband easy to use and install but transmission speeds and to a lesser extent network coverage reduce the initial enjoyment of getting up and running."

BT is going to increase its internet market by giving ultra-fast internet of 20Mbps at a cheaper price. It is believed that the new packages will be launched in a weeks time.

BT is planning to come up with two offers. The first one is all about the customers having to sign a contract for at least one year. At the beginning only forty percent of the country will be able to enjoy this package. At present, about 4.8 million broadband customers of BT enjoys service at about 8Mbps. Most of the customers receive a slower connection due to their distance from the telephone exchange.

The company is also trying to augment the speed of the internet by promoting its instrumentation in the exchanges. This welcome move sees that roads are no more dug and the customers staying clear of any disturbance. Initially, about 500 telephone exchanges will be upgraded, a large part of which is in the urban areas that covers forty percent of the country.

On the completion of the initial part of the work itself, customers are expected to find their internet getting better. For example, a DVD film takes three hours to download. By an enhancement of speed in the internet, it will take only half an hour.

The BT spokesman Michael Philips claims that there are no catches and they wanted to be competitive in giving the best deals to their customers. He adds that it will enforce its speed of video streaming during peak hours for the users, at a most basic package. Phillips also claimed that BT was laying out a super fast broadband network as well that would transform the market apart from driving the other ISPs to propose similar deals.

The latest speedtest report (September) from the broadband comparison site, broadband.co.uk has placed the cable broadband provider, Virgin Media on top for its impressive 6.13Mbps average download speeds while O2 Telefonica ( Be and O2 broadband ISP) has managed to secure second spot with 5.12Mbps download speed. However, in terms of average upload speed, Be has topped the table with 0.807Mbps and Virgin Media has been placed in second position with 0.459Mbps.

As for the average download speeds of the internet service providers UK, the figure is around 3.6Mbps and there was not much substantial improvement in speeds during the last quarter. The average upload speed was measured at 0.379Mbps during the speedtests. This means, the top two providers are well ahead of the average speeds, both in upstream and downstream speed performance.

Both Sky broadband and Orange ISP provider came with slightly lower than average download speeds (3.163Mbps and 3.021Mbps respectively). It should be noted that Orange has recently shown much better performance both in terms of speeds and reliability thanks to the improvements made to its broadband networks.

Other providers who managed to find a place in the list of top ten fastest providers are as follows: Tiscali (2.71Mbps), TalkTalk (2.398Mbps), BT (2.388Mbps), PlusNet (2.230Mbps), AOL (2.009Mbps) and Eclipse (1.892Mbps).

Interestingly, Eclipse Internet, which has launched its 24Mb broadband products last month, has been placed in the last place for the dismal performance. As for the upload speeds, Orange, Sky, PlusNet, TalkTalk and Eclipse have managed to provide bandwidth ranging between 0.22Mbps and 0.4Mbps.

Ovum’s UK broadband analyst Steven Hartley has stated that the BT’s latest home-mobile broadband package that has been much touted as the cheapest package among its kinds in the country could end way behind a profitable operation, even while admitting that the deal looked to be tremendously good value. The main point behind his perception on the context was the in-camera deal of BT with Vodafone to access the latter’s 3G towers to realize the wireless internet access offer.

Hartley makes it clear that in the backdrop of a wholesale agreement made by BT with Vodafone that appears to be an extension of the same kind of deal signed last year, the concerns of the customers prevail over the profitability of the fresh package, for the terms of the deal between the ISPs are quite obscure. According to the broadband analyzer, if the amount paid to Vodafone by BT to use the former’s network is high, there are chances for the deal to fall flat on its belly.

Another finding of Hartly is that in the UK broadband sector, it was not a common thing that a prominent and exclusive cable broadband provider in the country successfully taking to mobile broadband segment, even while moves to the opposite direction has been already made successfully by a number of mobile broadband suppliers. Here something that stands as an advantage to BT is its unlimited Wi-Fi hot-spot access that presently only O2 and T-Mobile can boast of.

Here as well BT can come up trumps, simply for the reason that the fixed broadband of O2 has limited market share and T-Mobile has no fixed broadband service at all. However, the extensive competitive pressure on BT to increase its data allowance, in a market like the UK that is highly competitive as well as bruised by the economic meltdown of the present may affect the incremental margins and top-up revenues of BT.

This is part two of the list of Broadband deals available in the broad market of Broadband Suppliers in UK.

Virgin Media: Virginia media provides extremely fast broadband supplied by cable. It also offers unlimited downloads and absolute freedom. If bought online, it has a discount of 10 pounds. The installation charge is 25 pounds and the contract length is 12 months. The maximum upload speed is 256 kbps and the maximum download speed is 2 mbps. The monthly rent is 18 pounds.

Be: Be provides speeds up to 24 megabytes. It comes with a complimentary wireless Be Box modem. The offer is at present the fastest Internet connection in the UK and is the ideal connection for users who love to download a lot of music, games and videos. The set up charge is 24 pounds and the contract has to be at least for 3 months. The maximum upload speed is 1.3 mbps and the maximum download speed is 24 mbps with a monthly charge of 24 pounds every month.

Pipex: The Pipex Max Broadband Only offers free modem, a free connection and a free security suite. The contract length is 12 months. It also has a special offer that in which they provide 2 months of free broadband or a modem with no cost if the user changes to pipex from a different broadband service provider. The monthly rent is 24.99 pounds and the maximum upload speed is 448 kbps and the maximum download speed being 8 mbps.

Demon: The Demon HomeOffice is a speedy broadband service that has features, which can maintain home and small businesses. The connection is cost-effective but very fast and also includes many handy features like the 24 hours email, telephone and live text chat support, email security features like anti-phishing, anti-spam and a filter from new viruses. The sep up and the modem come free and the contract length is 12 months. The monthly rent is 24.99 pounds with a maximum upload speed being 448 kbps and a maximum download speed of 8 mbps.

UK Online: UK online provides users to surf online with on the speediest broadband speeds. The usage is unlimited and it has a decent usage policy. It bundles ADSL + Wireless Router with an additional payment of 59.99 pounds. It has a 24-hour UK-based call centre, which comes at the cost of a local call. The set up charge is 25 pounds and the contract length is 12 months. The maximum upload speed is 768 kbps and the maximum download speed is 22 mbps with a monthly rental of 24.99 pounds.

BT has introduced a mobile and home broadband package that it boasts is the most affordable one of the kind in the UK at just GBP 15.65 per month. Meanwhile, it is not all that simple as well when some other internet service providers operating within the country charges the same amount for a sole mobile broadband connection.

The most exciting part of the deal, according to BT is the 3G network enabled mobile broadband service that offers the users a speed of up to 7.2 Mbps, apart from the regulation home broadband connection at the speed of 8Mbps. The mobile broadband service is realized from a tie-up with Vodafone to access its 3G spectrum.

According to the claims of BT, a 3G wireless dongle can switch between cable and mobile broadband, and it had coverage advantage of over 80 percent of the country. However, at least for the time being the MAC users should have to be kept waiting, as the dongle is only compatible with a PC. Nonetheless, it is expected that BT would soon solve this problem.

The data allowance pertinent to this package is only 1GB over a time span of eighteen months, as it is the GBP 180 worth contract’s duration. A price tag of GBP 308 or GBP 15.65 a month has been fixed for the option 1 of BT Total Broadband, but this includes a mobile dongle that is actually worth GBP 49.99. To get a final picture of this package one must add the BT phone line cost of GBP 11.25 per month to this.

A standalone mobile broadband dongle with 18GB data transfer allowance can be bought by the customer for GBP 130. Here the data allowance is limited for 18 months. A major disappointment here though is the fact that the data allowance could not be carried over, as the customer is required to buy data additionally once the free allowance is used up.

As cheap broadband is a reality only when you go for entry level packages, high level packages that come with better speeds and download limits always sound expensive for many users. Unlimited broadband packages allow the users to download as much as they want during off-peak hours, but the speed gets reduced to half when compared to usual hours. Naturally, lots of broadband customers grumble when the ISPs put some cap on their usage or when they reduce the speed at specific times.

The issue of pricing has become so much complex for the broadband providers on the arrival of high bandwidth services like IPTV and online gaming websites. These applications demand high bandwidth and can cause congestions at times so this leaves the ISPs to prioritize the traffics with their tailored packages as done by PlusNet which launched its Pro package exclusively for gamers.

Many feel that ISPs can either make these packages a bit cheaper by passing a part of the cost to the content providers themselves. Tiscali was one of ISPs who raised concerns over bandwidth when BBC iPlayer was launched this year pointing out that it may lead to bandwidth crisis on the line.

BBC online news reports Simon Gunter of Tiscali as saying, “We have to handle much more video and the question is - how do we square the costs of distributing lots of content? We could look to minimise the costs of distribution and in that the content originators may need to contribute."  He further says that ‘demand for bandwidth driven by innovative applications will always outstrip the physical and economic supply of network.’

Prioritizing certain traffics such as VoIP or online gaming can relieve customers of some costs, however, how these tailored packages will be received by the customers in long run is going to be a question, according to Ian Fogg of Jupiter Research firm. He feels the concept of packaging is what internet is all about – access to all websites with equal service quality.

Broadband uptake is one of indicators that show how a nation makes progress in modern telecommunication technologies. In UK, more than sixty percent of the population have their own broadband connection, showing a manifold growth in broadband penetration since 2005. With growing expansion of LLU network, cheap broadband prices and the availability of variety of choices in consumer and business broadband, UK broadband market looks more attractive to today’s consumers than ever. However, a few issues like advertised speeds vs actual speeds and migration related problems are still being discussed among customers, broadband critics in forums demanding a complete solution for these problems.

The fierce competition among broadband providers has both pros and cons. On the beneficial side, broadband customers get a wide range of choices with a few ISPs offering cheap broadband deals at unbelievable prices. Do you need wireless support or a business broadband package with all essential features like email, static IP, domain name and web space? Whether BT or Eclipse, most business ISPs consistently slash the  prices and a few ISPs like Tiscali, AOL or BT offer free wireless routers. TV over broadband and online gaming have also become popular stuff with many broadband customers during the last year.

How does UK fare among other nations in terms of broadband uptake? The latest report released by the EU Telecoms shows that not only UK but other nations in Europe like Finland, Denmark and Netherlands have better growth in broadband penetration when compared with other nations worldwide, especially, the US. According to the report, only one-fifth of households in US have broadband connection while six members of EU have surpassed US in terms of broadband penetration. 

Viviane Reding, EU telecoms commissioner, while expressing happiness and statisfaction over broadband growth in Europe, also pointed out that the competition in broadband market can improve it further, while the customers should explore the broadand market in every way to get the best out of it. 

Further she commented:
"Only by opening up the single market for business will Europe become competitive and will consumers benefit from a wide choice of rich and affordable services."

The UK broadband provider AOL, the subsidiary of Carphone Warehouse has introduced two packages which replaced the old AOL silver and AOL Platinum packages.

The new packages 'Wireless' and 'Wireless Plus' will have 8 Mb download speed and a special offer of a wireless router worth £50 when one signs up for the package.

Wireless package which comes with a monthly cost of £14.99 will offer 10 GB usage allowance and unlimited internet access depending on the Fair Usage Policy.

Wireless Plus is available with three options. The cheapest option is priced at £19.99 a month and the customers need to purchase AOL Talk Pay As You Go package. The option 2 is available with AOL Talk Evenings and Weekends at £22.49 a month. The option 3 would cost £24.99 a month for the customer if he buys AOL Talk Unlimited with this package. All Wireless Plus options will have 40 GB usage allowance and a contract period of 24 months.

It looks like the broadband customers in UK are caught between the ISPs who are run by business motives and the high-bandwidth services which are reluctant to contribute to the internet costs. Most ISPs advertise higher speeds but they rarely deliver those speeds, especially during peak hours (between 4pm to 1am). Customers, on the other hand, subscribe to high speed broadband packages paying hefty fee and found it disappointing to see their speeds are throttled during these hours. It is needless to say that most customers are attracted by high-bandwidth programmes like P2P, online gaming and video on demand services etc. However, when they find that their speeds are managed or their usage is underestimated by the ISPs, they often need to upgrade their packages or choose tailored broadband packages which shatter the concept of net neutrality. This problem is raised by an e-petition lead by Lee Sexton. The e-petition is under-signed by many users (anyone can sign till 31st May, 2008) and will be addressed to the government.

The petition attributes the degradation of service to ISPs who oversubscribe on their networks and do all kinds of traffic shaping to avoid congestion on the lines. Finally, it is end users who suffer from poor service and slower connections. Thus, the key issue raised by the petition is throttling of speed and the attitude of ISPs over the usage of customers who like to access the wide range of websites available today.

“With todays broadband services, eg Games on Demand (up to 4gb per download), movies on demand (up to 2gb in size) and music on demand (anything up to 300mb per album) ISP's have severely underestimated customers usage and rely on this underestimate to continue to oversubscribe their networks and keep the status quo. The problem now being is that the status quo is no longer maintained as we are now being throttled on speeds and blocking ports to restrict the speed we signed up for.”

More details on e-petition.

There may be so many ISPs in your city since everybody is using Internet these days. They may have several offers and several rates. Some may have called themselves as a best and your friends may call another best. But you need to choose one according to the needs of you and your family. Your requirement can be different from other so the Internet Service Provider called best by your friend may not work for you. Here are some guidelines to determine the best ISP. If your ISP offers your software upgrades often and doing successful business since long time then you can call that one a best ISP. You can determine how serious are they about their customers need and how serious are they about their business. That will also helps in the performance or the speed of your internet by showing what they are constantly changing.

Another thing which helps you to decide which the best ISP is is the number of email addressed they give per account. The ISP may not be suitable for you if the number of email address is not sufficient for you and your family members because the email address is the basic need of all who uses internet. At least you must be provided one email id to each of your family members.

Good ISPs may have the services like website blocking. For example if you have some children in your house then you may not want to let them to surf adult websites. ISP can block them in your request. Some ISPs even have services like the customer oriented offers like cartoon and games for children and even the sites which may helps regarding to the children's education.

The best ISP will be one that offers SPAM blocker and virus protection for your email and computer. This will protect your computer from any viruses that may be sent to you. SPAM blocker will help to save you time in reading your emails as it blocks many of those irritating emails that you do not want.

Virus protection and SPAM blockers is the compulsory thing that a high speed Broadband Connection Service Provider should have. It's necessary to protect your emails and computer from any kind of viruses or harmful programs. SPAM blocker is needed to get rid of hundreds of emails that come to your mailbox daily. SPAM blocker filters those unwanted emails and keeps your inbox clean. I also suggest you to choose the unlimited internet usage service. You may need to use internet lets say you need to mail anytime. Make sure you should not be paying additional for such urgent and normal situation. At least make sure that they will not charge you additional to check your mail anytime you want.

Money is definitely another factor to be cared about. Prices of ISP may differ according to the services that you are being provided. But I suggest you to not to be too concerned about the money. The first thing you need is service. You may get the worst one when choosing a cheap one. Best ISP is that which connects quickly, performs fast when loading websites and that have security which can not be available for so cheap for sure. So it's better to choose ISP according to your families requirements.

The internet service provider regulator Ofcom has recently drawn up some new rules that ISP companies shall have to follow. The new rules are based around how ISPs give a small code which allows you to switch to another ISP, this code is called the Migration Authorisation Codes (Mac). Ofcom stated that the new rules will make it easier for people to switch from one ISP to another. At current a ISP does not have to give out this code and many are refusing, thus trapping customers into there service. Broadband is ever more becoming standard in British homes, and it is expected that up to 80% of the population of internet users use Broadband, and with the increasing amount of people connecting via broadband the number of complaints of how easy it is to switch is growing and is something Ofcom have had to address quickly before the number gets out of hand. The want to switch Ofcomcan be quoted to say that 83% of the people who had moved from one broadband company to another had no problem, however 17% is a large number of people who did have issues and it that which Ofcom are looking into. The issues are coming about with the release of many cheap internet service providers that users are trying to jump apon, and then finding they can not get a MAC, and thus can not transfer to another ISP. Cost comparison website USwitch has stated that up to 234,000 try to move who they get there broadband from every month. The new rules state that all ISPs from 14 February 2007 broadband will have to give a MAC code to anyone who requests it, and they will not be able to accept any money, or request any money for it, meaning everyone will be able to switch ISP quickly and without to much effort.

It has been a happy turn out for the cash-strapped internet users for they could now, by switching providers, save more than GBP100 per year, as the prices have fallen to below GBP 6 per month, for the cheapest broadband packages. As a good number of companies are competing to promote broadband packages of higher speeds that come at a price, researches say that a large number of households are in the look out for broadband packages that lowered their bills.

Here, a few companies, such as TalkTalk, Plusnet and O2 are found targeting this part of the market by showcasing highly cheap looking deals. A subsidiary of BT, Plusnet had launched a GBP 5.99 broadband package that did not attach a phone package, a few weeks back. A remarkable aspect one gets to see here is that to have a price that low, the user did not have to sacrifice the service speeds.

Many hold the opinion that Plusnet's Value offer is the offer to beat, as it provides the users speeds of up to 8Mbps, apart from a monthly, up to 10GB usage allowance. This package includes a wireless router and the connection charges are also waived. The catches here however are; an eighteen month contract, and the fact that only eighty percent of the UK customers are availed this package.

Meanwhile, TalkTalk displays a broadband and phone Package for GBP6.49 per month, although to gain this offer householders had to switch to the company's line rental. The disadvantage of a TalkTalk cheap broadband package according to the experts, is their poor show in customer service surveys. Alternatively, the O2 cheap broadband package of GBP7.50 per month is a fixed line service, which has topped many surveys held on customer satisfaction.

However, the cheapest broadband deal for short contract comes from AOL Broadband. Here a one month contract costs just GBP4.99 that rises to GBP9.99 at the completion of three months. Since, it is not a line rental this deal asks the subscriber to take the phone calls package of AOL, as well.

UK online together with IoD (Institute of Directors) has published an online guide entitled "Your Business and the Internet". The objective of the guide is to provide useful information that smaller businesses require about taking advantage of the available resources. By doing so they may be able to operate in a multitude of ways and make their presence felt in the Internet world. The broadband guide focuses on the many advantages of business broadband yet to be tapped by some businesses in UK.
In comparison with their European counterparts, UK is lagging behind in terms of broadband usage. Statistics reveals that about 86 - 89% of businesses in France, Spain, Sweden and Finland are connected to broadband. In the UK it is only about 77% despite a prediction that by 2011 about 32 million UK consumers will shop online.

Chris Stening, MD - UK Online remarks that "Being online nowadays is fundamental as the Internet has placed almost unlimited information and choice in the hands of the consumer. Not having a website, even a basic site which describes your business and provides contact details, is a serious omission as the first thing most people do now is 'Google' for what they want - searching for websites to compare services and products before buying. Despite this, our own research shows that as many as two thirds of small businesses with less than ten employees still operate with no Internet connection."

So, this guide is aimed at providing the technical know-how in a simplified, easy to comprehend format. It is argued by the IoD that such a specification is not easily available as most part of the internet throws light on consumer needs.

A copy of this pocket book is available in pdf format at
http://www.ukonline.net/pocketbook/pdf/iodpocketbook.pdf

As British Telecom is working earnestly on a fibre optic roll out in the UK that would increase the broadband speeds in the UK up to 100 Mbps, an internet service provider based in America has been found offering its Japanese customers, world’s fastest broadband service undoubtedly.

J:Com is the American ISP that is offering its Japanese broadband customers a maximum speed of up to 160 Mbps. A fact that could trigger heart attacks to the UK ISPs. According to the current situation in the UK, the fastest broadband service offered is an up to 50Mbps service by Virgin Media.

More news related to this are pouring out from the land of midnight sun that seems to compound the woes of the UK ISPs, which are very much under criticism for their high broadband prices. The charge fixed by J:Com for its upgraded modem is GBP35 that is reasonable considering the high speed nature of the service.

Nevertheless, the monthly charge for the superfast broadband service of up to 160 Mbps that has been fixed at GBP35, is obviously a price that most of the UK’s broadband consumers as well as ISPs would regard as jaw droppingly low.

It seems that Britain has a lot to learn and adapt from Japan, such as the low connection costs for home broadband services in Japan. The average broadband connection cost of around GBP55 in Japan inclusive of the modem, is considerably lower than the prices charged by their counterparts in the UK.