Samknows.com has published its first 'Performance Monitoring Report' on the UK broadband providers recently. The report which contains more than 40 pages is available in Adobe .PDF format and can be downloaded from its website. Earlier, Samknows has installed a unit on the home/office broadband connections in the UK that enabled it to monitor the performance of ISPs and get the essential data such as broadband speed, usage, throughput, connection failures etc.

Presently, the findings are based on 223 monitoring units, Samknows says, and the monitoring process will be expanded in the future. While the performance of the most broadband providers in the UK has been monitored (using 20 units on average), a few ISPs like AOL broadband provider is yet to be included in the test, according to the report. The performance of a few broadband providers like BT, Be and Virgin Media has been tested by more than 20 monitoring units.

Here are some of the findings based on the test conducted during six week period from 223 monitoring units:

There was little discernable difference between most ISPs in majority of metrics.

The ISPA award winner, Zen Internet offered the fewest failures across all metrics.

Among the ISPs, Virgin Media’s cable services and Be/O2’s services provided a consistently low latency throughout (means better speed). Virgin ADSL broadband services performed poorly in this area. Latency levels: Virgin Media (cable) - 29.03ms, Be Unlimited - 30.50ms, Plus Net - 37.68ms, BT - 37.84ms, TalkTalk - 43.99ms, Virgin.net (ADSL) - 62.56ms

BT broadband provider provided the fastest throughput when measured as a percentage of implied line speed.
The cable broadband provider, Virgin Media’s cable throughput remained consistent on their 2, 4 and 10Mbps products, however, was quite variable on their 20Mbps product (Virgin Media XL broadband).

Interestingly, the use of traffic shaping in the networks of BT and PlusNet, resulted in certain classes of traffic slowing significantly during peak hours.

The ADSL 2+ broadband provider, Be Unlimited which has a fairly robust DNS service has performed well in most areas like DNS performance, less number of pocket loss, VoIP performance, web page fetching times etc.

The recent report published by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reveals the speed and price of broadband offered by internet providers in its member countries greatly vary, however broadband take up has increased to 60 percent of total net users in those countries.

Speed-wise, Japan, belonging to Asia Pacific region offers the fastest broadband (100 Mbps) in the world, compared to the average 10 Mbps speed as per OECD standard.

Japan also offers the lowest tariff with respect to one megabit per second speed. While it is just 0.11p in Japan (in UK, you pay £1.81 for every one megabit per second),Turkey has most expensive providers and the tariff is around £40 for 1 Mb broadband. US offers slightly cheaper broadband service than UK in terms of 1 mbps but more than half of connections in US are Cable-based.

With Japan, other three nations Korea, Sweden and Finland too offer high speed broadband (100 Mbps) as all these countries use fibre optic networks which draw much slower investment from ISPs in Europe and UK. What is unique about broadband available in Japan is that users get as much upload speed as the download speed due to the use of optic fibre.

The report also says broadband prices in their member countries (30) fell by nearly twenty percent during the year while the speeds were upgraded smartly, up by 30 percent. In UK, ADSL+2 which promises double the speed of broadband over the telephone line, unable to achieve the maximum theoretical speed of 24 Mbps in most of the places. Cable broadband in UK boasts of higher speeds up to 20 Mbps or more, but still both these broadband technologies fell much short of 100 Mbps broadband that is offered in countries like Sweden orJapan.

Presently, very few ISPs like Be offer ADSL 2+ broadband in UK, while BT Broadband Supplier plans to launch its ADSL 2+ in 2008.

BT broadband provider has revealed its plans to deploy 70km fibre optic submarine cable line between Orkney and the Scottish mainland as a part of extending its 21CN programme to the Northern Isles, according to a report.

The ISP has signed a deal with Global Marine Systems which will install the network between Skaill Bay in Orkney to Dunnet Bay near Thurso. The network will co-exist with the current microwave radio links and provide access to 21CN network to the users in the Northern Isles.

Brendan Dick, Director BT, Scotland said:

"This is another major step in the preparatory work we are progressing so that people living in the Northern Isles can share in the benefits that our next-generation network will bring,"

He further said:
"Nearly 60 exchanges in the islands, from the largest to the smallest, will have existing equipment removed and replaced with 21st Century kit.
"And it will be well worth the wait, because every exchange, no matter how remote, will have the same capability as a city centre exchange."

It should be noted that Global Marine has successfully installed a cable network between the UK and Guernsey in the Channel Islands, a couple of months ago. Meanwhile, BT is also set to install new equipment in more than 1000 exchanges in Scotland.

On 16^th March, 2007, Virgin media announced that it is going to double the top speed of its successful cable broadband service later this year. The current speed of its premier service is going to double up as from May to provide 20Megs. This new speed is going to enable Virgin Media customer to get a lightening fast download speed for their MP3 is a little over 3 seconds and other download are going to speed up as well. The upload speed is going to be near around 768Kbps which is good too.

The flagship 'XL' service is going to aim at the existing and new cable broadband users either for home or business purpose. The news was given the Chief Commercial Officer, Ernie Cormier, who explained that the new change is going to bring in a new very high speed internet experience for its users and not many competitors can match or beat this offer.

Therefore, if you are dying to get ultra-fast speed for your internet experience, XL is what you should be looking at as it going to satisfy all your browsing requirements whether you are downloading music, or streaming videos online or blogging. Get ready as once the service gets its boost this May, the monthly subscription rate is going to be increased from £35 to £37 per month.

This is great news for all the Virgin Media customers and for those as well who would like to take advantage of such economical package offered by Virgin Media.

According to the analysis of the seven broadband regions around the globe by Point Topic, the broadband providers in South East Asia (SEA) offer residential DSL broadband services for a monthly rental of £9.50. This is the cheapest DSL offer among the seven regions and just half of the broadband price of similar service available in Asia Pacific region. However, the average connection speed in SEA is around 1,761Kbps (Kilo bits per second) which is much lower than the average connection speed available in Asia Pacific region (7,738Kbps).

In Western Europe and

North America, anyone can get connections of 4,172Kbps for a price around £25. However, broadband services are slightly cheaper in Western Europe than

North America. The tariffs of residential DSL services in Easter Europe are the cheapest of these three regions and a customer in Eastern Europe just pays 80 % of what a customer pays in

Western Europe. Unfortunately, a broadband user in Europe gets only half of the speed provided in the

Western Europe. In Latin and

South America, the tariffs are very expensive (nearly $ 66) with the lowest download speeds among all seven regions.

Cable broadband services also do well around the world, in terms of competitive price, connection speed and service. Again, SEA tops among the cheap cable broadband services and offers residential connections with speeds ranging between 192Kbps to 2Mbps for a monthly rental of US $15.8 per month.Cable broadband services comprise more than half of the broadband connections in

North Ameica. Cable service providers highlight the cheap price and higher connection speed to target their customers. The cable services offer much faster broadband connections (6,984Kbps on average) for cheap monthly rentals.Fibre based broadband is growing at a faster pace in

Europe in recent times. FTTx (fibre to the home) services are being deployed in many of the European countries this year. Major broadband service providers like

Orange and CiteFibre of France have already entered into this FTTx market. In East European region, most of the fibre based connections are FTTB (fibre-to-the-building) and slower (40 Mps) compared to 100 Mbps available in Asia Pacific region. Price-wise, Asia Pacific offers FTTx services at a cheaper price ($38) with better download speeds (100 Mbps) among the seven regions.

It's been quite a while in the queue to wait for the next 802.11 technology and here it is, 802.11n. We all understand the 802.11b has been a great technology and is a big success, as we could find wireless devices running on 802.11b and 11g everywhere around the world due to its cheap price and good quality coverage. The 802.11n technology is still being researched and we don't have an estimate to its official launch.

Until that time you can certainly take a look at some of the MIMO (multiple input, multiple output) device already in the market to get a taste of what 802.11n in store for you. What MIMO does? It releases multiple signals at your premises to catch all the wireless enables connected antenna's to build a certain path to each one. And by the way, it ranges more that what 802.11g offers today.

Patience is the virtue and taste good! Therefore those enterprises which have an urgent need for such technology which can take them beyond the scope 802.11b & g can try out the recent crop of MIMO Routers to enhance the coverage factor. If you feel that your office performance is being affected because of poor speed and range, now it's a time to taste a better mix i.e. pre-n MIMO hardware.

So, what kind of longer range can you expect from MIMO? Well it all depends on the kind of site you are in currently. There are other players in market like the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router (F5D8230-4) which has a greater coverage somewhere around 800 percent over standard 802.11g adapters. Don't get carried away with different stories related to efficient MIMO devices as things can be different at different places like for example, not every office structure is same, not every market place is same.

What do you think the speed is going to be? Take an example of Buffalo's Technology AirStation MIMO Wireless Cable/DSL Router (WZR-G108), a touch system which brings an excellent WPA security. It works almost 8 times faster than a normal 802.11g device. This device will bring in revolutionary access to your wireless network where old technology of 802.11b & g will fail to even compete.

Next player is the D-link DI-634M Wireless 108G MIMO Router. It has 4 antennas, 2 vertical and 2 horizontal with a quick and simple configuration setup. Next one is the Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router with SRX200. It has four-port 10/100 switch for almost GBP50 with a nice 3 year warranty. There is also SMC Networks' Barricade g 802.11g MIMO Wireless Cable Broadband Router, same price as Linksys and works as a 54Mbps 802.11g access point with 4 port Ethernet switch. Then comes NetGear RangeMax 240, you will love the speed going upto almost upto 240Mbps when used with RangeMax 240 adapters. Sounds like someone is wired or running on as advertised 802.11n. The news so far is that majority of MIMO-enabled routers can speed upto 108Mbps approximately.

Therefore, wait and watch the next generation wireless technology taking you with a fly.

Virgin Media, the major broadband provider in the

UK, signed a four-year deal with Cable & Wireless (C&W) to extend its services to its off net customers as well as new customers. Presently, Virgin media offers its bundled services that include broadband, phone and television services to half of all

UK households. This agreement is 'an important step towards making Virgin Media a truly national brand , quoted Chief Operating Officer Neil Berkett. As per the deal, the British Telecoms company will make its wholesale broadband service available for Virgin Media to access 4 million additional households in

UK.Neil Berkett further commented: "It lays a foundation for us to provide our unique quadplay services to the 50 percent of households outside our cable network."Virgin Media which was formed in March, 2006 after the merger of NTL Inc and Telewest broadband, has a customer base of more than three millions. It has introduced many innovations in marketing strategies including simplified tariffs and special offers to compete with other major

UK broadband providers like BT, SKY and Tiscali. However, Virgin Media's ongoing dispute with BSkyB has resulted in removal of sky channels from its cable network and the consequent loss of its customer base. C&W owns the largest broadband network in the

UK after BT broadband service. After it has sold its retail section of its broadband services, presently its network covers four million households in the UK.

HSPA is the abbreviation for High Speed Packet Access. The HSPA is in fact a collection of mobile telephony protocols that aims at improving the performance of the current mobile systems. The HSPA technology is just like having a broadband mobile system in your mobile phone or laptop. In case you need a cable broadband service then there are a lot of formalities to be considered such as you need to live in a cable serviceable area, you need to own a cable modem etc. HSPA on the other hand is similar cable broadband that does not require you to have any complicated wires or special modem or conditions. It is a type of mobile broadband service that provides you with a high speed internet service on your mobile phone or laptop.

 

 

HSPA forms a part of the GSM mobile network; in fact an upgradation done to the GSM 3G network service. To be able to access the HSPA technology all you need to have is an HSPA enabled unit, be it a mobile phone or a laptop. Most of the recent phones or high-end notebooks come with HSPA compatibility. For example the Samsung Tocco Ultra Edition (S8300), the Samsung OMNIAHD (I8910), the LG-X120 Laptop come with HSPA compatibility. Apart from mobile phones and laptops, many kinds of power amplifiers, servers, data-cards, docking stations, USB modems and wireless routers also come with built-in HSPA technology.

 

 

HSPA can be widely classified into two major categories; the HSUPA and HSDPA. HSUPA is High Speed Uplink Packet Access which allows you to upload data at higher speeds as high as 5.7Mbps. The HSDPA, High Speed Downlink Packet Access on the other hand increases the speed, at which data is received to your device. HSDPA has been around for almost 2 years now and is a common feature offered by most of the enterprise mobile phone models today. The further development to the HSPA technology is the HSPA Evolve, which is also known as HSPA+. This HSPA+ technology is working at providing higher speeds of up-to 42Mbps in the downlink and up-to 11Mbps in the uplink mode. The HSPA Evolve technology is expected to be available by the end of 2009.

Part 2 - Connecting the Network Now that you have all the necessary components you can begin to set up your wireless network. Modem & Router The first step is to set up your modem and wireless router. Whether you have ADSL or cable internet service, setting up your modem and router is relatively easy. Follow instructions included with your modem to get connectivity to the internet. Connect your modem to your wireless router by plugging the Ethernet cable from your modem into the appropriate port on your wireless router. Check the manual for your router to find out which is the correct port. Once you've connected the modem to the router, plug the router into the electrical outlet. Software Setting up your wireless router is usually very simple. Many manufacturers include software to make this process easy for you. Some router manufacturers may require you to plug your Ethernet cable in to one of your computers to set up your router. Most routers have various security options which can be enabled through a control panel. Securing your wireless network is important to keep your network safe from unwanted users. Adding Computers Now that you have set up your wireless network, you can now to add computers. Depending on your security settings, you may have generated a code to allow access to your network. If you generated a security code for accessing your network, be sure to have it handy when adding new computers to your network. If you need to add a wireless network adapter to a computer to access your network, follow the instructions given in the manual of your product. Connecting to the Network The information that follows describes how to connect to a wireless network using software on Windows XP computers. Your computer may have different software. Consult the manual for instructions on connecting to wireless networks.

1. You should see an antenna in the lower-right corner of your screen. Right click and select "View Available Wireless Networks"
2. You should see the name of the wireless network you set up. Left click on the name of your network and click on "Connect"
3. If you set up security that requires an encryption key to connect, a box will pop-up asking for it. Enter the key exactly as you copied it. Now hit "Connect" These keys are often case-sensitive.
4. You should now be connected to your wireless network!

If you did not see your wireless broadband or network listed you may be out-of-range of your network or your wireless adapter may not be working.

DrayTek Vigor 100 ADSL2+ Ethernet Modem provides the secondary device with a real routed IP connection and has an ability to manage the connection fully and it is setup easily. It is not configured just plugged in and sets up the PC or router. The true public IP address is straight through the firewall or router which completes the control of ISP connections. It is a compact and portable ADSL2+ type of modem which is new and works fast and supports the upgradeable firmware.

DrayTek Vigor 100 ADSL2+ Ethernet Modem is an true ADSL modem with an Ethernet connection. Ethernet connections are used for client whether they use in home or business broadband. Ethernet is a single cable which operates with the local area network. It is more reliable than other ports. Normally, it does not require any set up of configurations. It has a ADSL parameters which are preset for UK parameters that can be adjusted according to your convenience. DrayTek Modem has PPPoE and PPPoA bridging. PPPoE stands for Point-to-point over Ethernet which transfers the PPP traffic over Ethernet connections. PPPoA is Point-to-point over ATM which is very similar to PPPoE and communicates with ADSL standards mostly at hardware level.

DrayTek Vigor 100 ADSL2+ Ethernet Modem is connected with a devices as firewall, router or PC which is logged into the Internet directly and it fully controls over the ADSL connections which makes this broadband modem as a unique product. With PPPoE client facility, it includes PCs and most of the Ethernet WAN routers. It has a ADSL compatibility as ITU-T G.992.1 G.DMT which has speed for downstream up to 8 Mpbs, ITU-T G.992.5 ADSL2+ which has downstream speed up to 24 Mbps and ITU-G.992.3 ADSL2 G.dmt.bis has downstream speed up to 12 Mbps. This new ethernet modem has a rear panel sockets and controls are RJ45, Power On or Off, Reset, ADSL and Power In. It is supplied with AC or DC PSU, ADSL line cable with RJ11 and 1.8M and Ethernet cable with RJ 45 and 1.8 M. DrayTek Vigor 100 ADSL2+ Ethernet Modem is wall mounted.

Compscore Networks, a global Internet information provider released a list of top 20 UK Internet providers properties during March 2007. The report was based on the data provided by its division comscore World Metrix audience ratings service and the important findings are as follows:

Google remains the most-visited site in the

UK with 27 million visitors. Microsoft came second with 27 million visitors while eBay came third with 22 million visitorsBritish Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) was the major gainer among the top 20 sites with 9.7 visitors which is 36 percent increase compared to the last year. Virgin Media, the major cable broadband provider had 11.1 million visitors in March (up 4 percent from February).

Some of the social networking sites like tagged.com and facebook.com grew considerably during this period. Tagged.com was reported to have gained about 3 million visitors which is more than 200 percent year on year growth.

Facebook.com gained 2.7 million visitors (38 % growth) while Six Apart sites grew 30 percent to 3.5 million visitors. Other sites like Bebo.com saw a growth of nearly ten percent with its gain of 7.8 million visitors.

Interestingly, major UK consumer sites dominated list of

UK top gaining properties. Vodofone, British Airways, Tikcketmaster and Walmart are some of the consumer sites which saw tremendous growth in terms of gaining visitors to their sites. Vodofone remains top in the

UK consumer sites with 4 million visitors. On average, the other three sites had an increase of 15 - 40 percent of its visitors during this period. Tesco and Gorilla Nation are the other two consumer sites in the list, which saw a gain of 10 percent in terms of visitors.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a statistical survey related to broadband indicators like penetration, usage , speeds and prices which show the market trends worldwide. Its broadband portal throws light on these indicators which differ from country to country worldwide. OECD uses these indicators to assess broadband markets in different nations.

As far as the technology which is mostly used to deliver broadband is concerned, DSL contributes 62 percent of the total broadband network and cable broadband comes second with 29 percent.  The latest fibre based broadband which is virtually non-existent in the UK, has a share of 8 percent of total broadband connections on the globe.

In terms of broadband penetration, the UK has 24 broadband connections for every 100 inhabitants and UK stands at 11th position in the table. Denmark tops the table with 35 percent of its population have broadband connections of their own.

When we assess the range of broadband prices in these countries, Switzerland offers the cheapest broadband deal for just 5.80 USD while in Czech Republic which is the most expensive nation for broadband users, the entry level broadband package cost s 33.38 USD. In the UK, the prices are moderate ranging between 16.54 and 62.76 USD.

courtesy: OECD

Which broadband technology offers the highest speed? How much speeds that DSL  or cable or wireless broadband deliver? The statistics show the new fibre based broadband (FTTN) which is clearly on lead with DSL and cable broadband following it. FTTN which is mostly used in countries like Japan, Korea, France was reported to have 77,120 Kbps download speed and 58, 591 Kbps upload speed. On average, ADSL broadband offers up to 9 Mbps downstream and 1,603 Kbps upstream. Cable also offers nearly same downstream, however, it delivers less than half of upstream that DSL provides.

Now we come to the main issue of broadband – broadband speeds. Except a few nations, customers in most broadband developed nations could achieve less than 20 Mbps speed despite the varying speeds shown in advertisements. Practically, Japan is the only country where the actual speed and advertised speed come closer. It offers more than 90 Mbps speed connections using FTTN technology. In Europe, France uses this fibre based technology which helped it to increase the speed drastically in recent years. On average, people of France get more than 40 Mbps speed. In UK, the average speed varies between 10 and 15 Mbps which is not bad at all despite the fact that FTTN has not entered UK yet.

There has been a considerable rise in the number of Wi-fi hotspots during the last four years. The wi-fi had its inception in the UK by the year 2002 when there were just a few commercial, public hotspots around. Check the Ofcom report which says the total number of public hotspots has crossed 12000 mark by 2006, up by 32 % over the previous year. Nearly one-fifths of the

UK adults own a Wi-Fi enabled laptop and two-thirds of them use the hotspot for accessing internet.It is estimated that more than 30 percent of UK adults have mobiles that can access internet, however, less than half of them (48 %) access internet from their mobiles. The high cost factor is cited as one of the main reasons by a considerable part of the mobile users for not going online regularly. The other reason was that many of them were skeptic or little interested in using their mobiles for internet access.Wifi is a wirless broadband technology primarily established to cater the needs of LAN users, i.e. its coverage is usually limited to small area. Being a potential alternative for ADSL and cable broadband, it uses IEEE 802.11 standard for accessing internet. Now, every

UK adult who has Wi-fi enabled devices like laptops can access internet at access points known as Wifi hotspots. In UK, three types of Wi-fi hotspots are prevalent - Private hotspots, public hotspots like cafes or restaurants where the users are usually not charged for wifi access and commercial hotspots where the users are provided with wifi-enabled devices for a charge.The history of Wi-fi in the

Uk dates back to year 2002 when the hotspots were born with a small number wifi hotspots which were launched here and there. However the spurious growth of hotspots led total number of commercial hotspots to 12,000 by the end of 2006. While there are many operators who provide Wi-fi access, the cloud remains the largest Wi-fi broadband provider in the

UK. Cloud operates 7400 hotspots which is estimated to be more than two-thirds of total Wi-fi hotspots in the

UK. BT Openszone and T-mobile run 1800 and 1080 hotspots in the

UK respectively, and usually the Wi-fi users are allowed to access more hotspots out of their circles within the rules of companies' roaming agreement.

 

Virgin Media, the largest cable broadband provider in the UK is implementing a new policy to restrict the service of the heaviest users who, according to its findings, constitute just 5 percent of total customers. These 5 percent customers are reported to download as much as 3 GB during the peak hours (between 4pm and midnight) leading to traffic jam the on the information superhighway. In order to make its service reliable for everyone during peak hours, Virgin Media moderates the speed of the customers who come in the top 5 percent of downloaders while the rest of Virgin Media broadband users will have their headline speeds unaltered.

Virgin Media provides three different broadband packages for its customers. The heaviest users will have reduced download and upload speeds(4pm till midnight)as follows:

Broadband Size: M
During peak times, the top 5% on the Size: M package download at least 350MB of traffic each.Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till midnight) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed - their download speed will be set to 1Mb, with their upload speed set to 128Kb. This will last for 4 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

Broadband Size: L
During peak times, the top 5% on the Size: L package download at least 750MB of traffic each.

Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till midnight) will have their high speed broadband temporarily traffic managed - their download speed will be set to 2Mb, with their upload speed set to 192Kb. This will last for 4 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

Broadband Size: XL
During peak times, the top 5% on the Size: XL package download at least 3GB of traffic each.

Any users hitting this amount during peak times (4pm till midnight) will have their broadband speed temporarily traffic managed - their download speed will be set to 5Mb, with their upload speed set to 256Kb. This will last for 4 hours from when the traffic management policy is applied.

It should be noted that Virgin Media has doubled the headline speed of its XL broadband service from 10 Mb to 20 Mb from 1st May.

The latest report released from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) shows that broadband is indeed the technology that is mostly used by the people to access the internet. According to the survey conducted by the ONS in the UK, more than 95% of the internet connections use the high speed internet or broadband technology.

It should be noted that sixty percent of UK households now have their own broadband connections, showing manifold growth in broadband uptake during the last four years.

While new broadband technologies like wi-fi and mobile broadband are gaining popularity these days, fixed line broadband connections that include ADSL and cable broadband still offer a few distinctive advantages like cheaper monthly tariff and various bundling options etc.

Since, broadband offers faster connection speeds and high reliability, the internet users either take up fixed line broadband or mobile broadband services while old, dial-up services see decelerated growth during the last two years.

By the end of June, 2008, 93.2 % of the web connections went through broadband, up from 91.6 % in March, 2008. The quarterly index of Internet Connectivity report also showed that the number of UK broadband users who prefer mobile broadband has quite increased in recent times.

One of the mobile broadband providers, T-Mobile reports that nearly half of the internet users in the UK (44%) wish to subscribe to mobile broadband package to enjoy the freedom of surfing internet on the move.

Richard Warmsley of T-Mobile has commented:
"More and more people have developed a need for being ‘always connected’ to online services which are important to them, whether it is on a laptop or on their phones,"