With the unveiling of BBC's iPlayer last month, it seems UK broadband providers could do some kind of traffic shaping if BBC does not come forward to share the cost of their networks which are used by its iPlayer. This view has been considered by a few ISPs in UK, as allowing such streaming videos over their network could slow down the internet access speeds considerably. During the peak hours, the impact will be felt more severely as these services consume greater part of the bandwidth over the line.

Tiscali, one of the major ISPs in UK is the first to raise the issue as its CEO warned other ISPs that the slow down of internet speed due to BBC's iplayers' viewers would make many broadband customers to complain to their ISPs.

Before BBC launched its iPlayer, UK already saw other online TV services cropping up like ITV and Channel 4 and Joost. These companies did not cause so much stir as BBC has done as BBC is obviously the most popular television not only in UK but worldwide. Other ISPs like BT and AOL also expressed their fears over the strain that their servers would experience when iPlayer becomes the greatest hit in UK online TV service. It seems a few ISPs have already been discussing this issue with BBC over sharing the cost of networks that become the platform for the iPlayer. The CEO of Tiscali said the company might involve in some kind of traffic shaping if the talks with BBC did not turn out to be successful.

It is yet to be seen, how the online television broadcast can affect the internet speeds as the download usage limit or fair usage policies already restrict the users from accessing internet for indefinite time.

Recent survey by a dedicated broadband information site revealed that around a quarter of the customers of UK ISP (Internet Service Providers) had received warning letters from their relevant ISPs regarding excessive broadband users. The survey boasts of information gathered from 557 broadband customers.

Something worth mentioning here at this point is the response of about half of the surveyed broadband subscribers of different ISPs that they would consider switching ISPs if they received something of the kind. The above mentioned group came up to 45 percent of the total surveyed, as only 13 percent confided that they would rather choose to carry on with the same provider.

Whatsoever the stand of the ISPs is, the results brought forth by the survey are believed to act as a warning to the ISPs’ communicating mode towards their subscribers. The result simply put forth a message to the ISPs to reconsider the way they interact with their customers, only to improve it promptly.

On the other side of the matter, the customer also ought to have an up-to-date account of the amount of data downloaded by them, especially with more and more users getting access to services such as BBC iPlayer, with the convenience of high data download speeds.

According to the Digital Music Report 2008 released by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the internet service providers have not taken adequate measures to curb the online music theft despite a good volume growth seen in online music industry.

Currently, many music recording companies offer a wide range of albums in digital format via internet. This helps the customers to download these albums without visiting music or video shops. The growth achieved by online music industry during the last few years is quite phenomenal. The sales number indicates over US$2.9 billion worth music albums were sold via internet. The year to year growth has also gone up by 40 percent when compared with the sales figures of 2007.

However, the online music theft and the illegal circulation of music remains a thorn in flesh of the online music companies. Recently, an appeal was made to ISPs on behalf of the government to take actions to prevent these things but it still has to yield good results.

In this scenario, the IFPI suggest that stringent actions should be taken against the infringers on behalf European Union and the governments of all countries across UK.

The CEO of IFPI, John Kennedy commented:
“A turning tide of opinion is one thing – a concrete programme of action is another. There is only one acceptable moment for ISPs to start taking responsibility for protecting content – and that moment is now.”

The BPI (British Phonographic Industry), the association of UK record companies has signed a deal (MOU) with the six largest internet service providers of the UK and the UK government to prevent illegal filesharing that takes places among the internet users. The Motion Pictures Association of America and BERR have also joined hands with the BPI to reach the historical agreement with the broadband providers.

According to the MOU, the ISPs will have to comply with the demands made by music and other rightsholders so that all the signatories will work together to reduce illegal filesharing on the internet. During the first year of implementing the new regulations, the broadband customers who are identified as sharing files illegally will receive informative letters from their ISPs while other while effective mechanisms to deal with repeat offenders will be implemented gradually.

BPI Chief Executive Geoff Taylor has commented:

“BPI has always believed that a partnership approach is the best way forward, as we showed with our education campaign with Virgin Media, launched in May. This has demonstrated that ISPs and the music business can work together positively to raise awareness about illegal filesharing. And, working with government, we have been able to build on that progress and encourage other major ISPs to start taking a responsible approach.

“In addition, the music business is constantly innovating to offer new, safe and legal ways to enjoy music online, and to create a future for digital music where creativity and copyright are respected. This MOU will help to create an environment in which such new digital services models can flourish.”

Richard Cox of Spamhaus, the anti-spam research firm blamed the government as well as UK’s major ISPs like Orange, Bulldog and BT for the security threats posed by increasing spam crisis in the UK. Although, spam remains a global issue and no permanent solution has ever been found by the anti-spam research bodies or ISPs to prevent the spam, the actions so far taken by the ISPs or government have been on slow phase, the Times online quoted Richard Cox as saying.

“There has been minimal activity by many internet service providers, all of whom are blaming the dubious legal situation of spam," Richard said.

Spammers usually hack a computer at a remote location using some malware like Trojan virus and illegally use such hacked computers for relaying spam across the internet. As many users may be unaware of their computers being used as spam relaying centres, the broadband providers are in a better position to monitor the things happening over their lines. The past shows only a few broadband service providers have taken responsibility for such things and have acted to prevent the spread of scam in large scale. This is not a uphill task for ISPs to watch out for their customers who could be hacked to send spam, considering the sophisticated monitoring systems they have.

Richard Cox has also demanded stronger actions from government that can curb spam to minimum level:

“The spam may come from Bulgaria but if its controlled by somebody in Russia and paid for by someone in the US - who do you prosecute, and in which country? How do you get the evidence into the right country? We're building on this but it's a very slow process."

Talisma Corporation, a leading provider of Customer Interaction Management (CIM) solutions like Web self-service, email response management, live chat, VoIP, phone, and a system-wide knowledge base conducted a survey over the online customer service provided by 50 leading UK broadband providers in February 2007.

During the survey, the following factors became criteria for testing customer service:

• The quickness with which the ISPs respond to the customers' complaints
• Completeness and correctness of responses
• Personalization of calls and emails
• FAQ and other useful information on their websites

Ironically, some of the major broadband providers were reported to have offered poor customer service mainly due to their lack of email responses to the customers. In addition, they were also inefficient in providing correct information to the customers. Interestingly, some of the small individual broadband providers fared well in this survey and provided better customer service to their customers.Jon McNerney, vice president international operations at Talisma, says:"Selecting a broadband ISP is similar to choosing an electricity or gas provider; customers are primarily concerned about the price rather than who provides the service. In this high-churn commodity market, good customer service is vital for ISPs to differentiate themselves and encourage customer loyalty. Response times are critical and delays in answering calls and emails impact customer satisfaction significantly. This challenge will only increase as channels such as SMS and live chat are demanded as a basic service from increasingly sophisticated customers,"

Most of the ISPs are still in their infancy in the broadband basics of good customer service. According to Talisma's report, only 6% of ISPs practiced personalization on calls or emails while only 16% of ISPs offered online chat facilities. Majority of ISPs (78%) did not offer self-help or FAQ section on their websites."The key is in providing a consistent customer experience across multiple channels, to support enhanced service efficiency, boost customer confidence, and improve retention efforts. However, only 16% of the ISPs audited have a unified view of customer interactions. Those companies that don't support multiple communication channels and integrate their data to provide a complete customer service will struggle to compete," added McNerney.

The survey exposed many shortcomings in online customer service offered by UK ISP. It was found that majority of broadband providers were not keen on offering satisfactory customer service to their customers. Each of the 50 ISPs was given a score out of 100 based on the test criteria, and the average score did not cross 60.

Despite being hit by the harbour waves of global economic recession, the broadband usage in the UK has been on a steady progress path. This fact is more than substantiated by the fresh projects undertaken by different UK ISPs, as well as the adventurous attitude of the users who seem to have adjusted themselves to the situation by taking some strategical measures such as dumping long term contracts for very short term deals.

Reports say that out of ten households in Britain, six are linked up to broadband today. However, the debacle is that nearly half the lot is not satisfied by the after sales service offered to them. Rersearches on the context suggested that less established ISPs are scoring in terms of value for money, data access speeds and service offered, over their highly recognised rivals.

According to a good number of broadband users of Britain, BT, AOL Broadband and Orange were the ISPs who fared the worst, despite their collectively owning 50 percent of the UK broadband market. On the contrary, O2, Plusnet and BskyB, who emerged as the toppers in the list, combinedly held only 15 percent of the market.

However, the most disappointing fact that was revealed in the survey was that despite rolling out GBP2.6 million a year, forty two percent of the customers were found unhappy with service rendered to them. Forty two percent of the broadband using population equates to 6.3 million people. This happens in the wake of customers daring the tough climate to pay for a reliable high speed broadband connection and above all, a customer service of the good-old fashion.

Meanwhile, a BT spokesman had denounced the survey alongwith the website called Uswitch that undertook the survey saying that it was only the previous week they along with BskyB, were chosen the best for customer service by another site called Broadband Genie through their survey. He also added that BT was also voted one of the best ISPs in the UK in a survey held this week by Reader's Digest.

A recent survey conducted by a dedicated broadband monitoring website of the UK revealed that out of the eleven biggest ISPs of Britain, only four scored above 50 percent in terms of consumer satisfaction. The website had polled a total of 500,000 people in the UK, out of which 79 percent held O2 as the best in providing customer service, and 72 percent voted it as the most reliable as well.

The broadband comparison website stated that the achievements of O2 and Be Unlimited Broadband in the segment of customer satisfaction was remarkable considering their size as a company. They added that generally in choosing a broadband service to sign up to, people often only considered the up to speeds and the prices, as customer service was definitely of high priority that the consumers only realised afterwards.

A significant fact that was unveiled in the research was that compared with the larger broadband suppliers, small or medium sized service providers fared far better in customer satisfaction rankings. However, it was obviously refreshing to find that a UK ISP that supplies some of the fastest service Broadband packages, also maintained high reliability, as well as customer satisfaction levels.

Be Unlimited, another medium statured UK broadband service provider, had come second next only to O2 with 71 percent votes for customer service and 70 percent for reliability. Plusnet emerged third with 67 and 69 percent, as Sky came fourth. Orange was the major disappointment for languishing at the bottom of the pile, as some other big names such as Pipex, TalkTalk, AOL and Tiscali too trailed below 40 percent.

The broadband comparison website who carried out the survey reckoned that one reason for O2 emerging victorious in the segment could have been for its advantage as a UK call centre. The website added that most common complaint regarding the after sales services of the big ISPs was digress, perhaps evolved out of the lack of technology-based knowledge.

The Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA UK), the internet trade association announced the nominees for the internet’s heroes and villains of 2007 for their contribution to the industry. These special awards will be given to the winners at the 10th annual UK Internet Industry Awards 2008 which is organized by the ISPA in association with Epitro. Both individuals and organizations have been nominated for these awards which are sponsored by UK fast.

Among the individuals who have been nominated for internet hero awards, Derek Wyatt MP and Peter Robbins OBE QPM, Chief Executive, IWF are included. While the former finds his place ‘for a decade of support promoting the Internet in the UK Parliament as chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Internet Group since 1997’, the latter has been nominated ‘for his continued leadership of the IWF and approach to fostering extensive partnerships with the Internet industry, the government and law enforcement agencies to tackle illegal online content.’

Facebook, the popular P2P site has been chosen as a nominee for internet hero award for respecting peoples’ browsing privacy by retracting the Beacon service, a system which automatically records user’s online spending habits, by making it an opt-in not opt-out service.’

Interestingly, ISPA nominates BT Wholesale in the internet villain category for changing the whole engineering plan for 21CN only six months before the launch date,’ and David Cameron MP  for 'buddying up with the music industry and trying to appeal to a younger audience.’

This year’s Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) Award which will honour an individual or organisation that has contributed to the fight against child abuse content has also announced the nominees that include Brightfilter.

Brightfilter has been nominated for providing filter to protect their customers from 'accidentally stumbling across indecent images of children.'

ISPA also awards the ISPs in 14 different categories such as ‘best consumer ISP’ ‘best wireless ISP’, ‘best business broadband ISP’ etc.

An Ofcom Ruling that came on Friday May 22, prompts British Telecoms to increase the broadband access charges for its rival internet service providers, especially the local loop unbundlers. According to this fresh move, the unbundled line charges may rise to GBP 86.40 from GBP 81.69. Beside, one thing that virtually intimidates the broadband providers of the UK is the fact that the watchdog for the UK communications has already allowed Openreach, the retail broadband division of BT, to make a fair return on its broadband activities of the future. Obviously, these also cover the country-wide optic-fibre network, widely regarded as the next generation broadband.

The soft part of the fresh move from the part of Ofcom is that the impact of it on the broadband customer may not be felt in the near future, although it is almost obvious that the prices for broadband service in the UK is all set for a hike in the short to medium term, mainly due to cope with the price rise of the individual telephone lines. Virgin Media is meanwhile one internet service provider that at present operates its own broadband network, and has been engaged in discussions with the other ISPs to lease capacity on its network. Reading through the lines, expert broadband analysts foresee a price-war in the wholesale market for broadband in the UK, as Virgin Media looks all set to take on BT in this segment. The lone doubt that stands tall is the line sharing capacity of Virgin Media against the mighty infrastructure of BT.

However, it is known that BT has grimly if not angrily reacted to the fresh proposals of the regulator, giving the notion that more is store for the broadband consumers in the UK. Beside, it has also sounded a warning that the rates mentioned in the new proposals were still too low that they were adequate for the broadband wholesaler to recover its costs fully.

According to a report from the Financial Times, James Murdoch of BskyB has criticized the service offered by major UK telecom operators who, according to him, charge too much for too little. This criticism is clearly aimed at broadband providers like BT who offer IPTV services via internet, the medium which is not as efficient as a broadcast of high-definition video content using satellite technology.

BskyB, the digital TV service provider via satellites offers many digital TV channels that include sports and on-demand videos. As the HD content viewing is gaining popularity in recent times, a few major UK broadband suppliers like BT and Tiscali have launched their IPTV services which reach many UK households via internet. Broadcast of videos on internet require fast internet connection and can cause congestion in internet traffic at times. These broadband providers also charge a hefty fee for getting the IPTV services, however, the question whether they offer same services that satellite broadband providers offer still remains to be answered by these ISPs.

The chief of satellite broadband provider further said BskyB has plans to expand as well introduce innovations in its services:

"When we go out there and we say we're going to challenge some of those big incumbent telecoms companies who've been charging too much money for too little to too many customers for way too long, we think that's good for customers.”

The aim of BSkyB is to benefit the customers who look for better service at cheaper price. The other issue that has to be answered is whether the ISPs who offer IPTV services are willing to upgrade their existing infrastructure so that the problems like poor quality and internet traffic congestion can be addressed. Even BT, the largest UK broadband provider has long been delaying its plans to launch FTTH service due to heavy investment for such plans. As far as the BT lines that carry broadband to UK households, they are so much inferior to the new technologies that promise higher speed like 100 Mbps in countries like Japan or Korea.

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.

The latest figures reveal that the total number of local loop unbundled broadband lines currently amounts to 5.75 million in the UK. The statistics for March was released by OTA (Office of the Telecoms Adjudicator) a couple of weeks back. The statistics released by the OTA also showed the upward graph of the local loop unbundled lines’ figures. It is a hot fact that over the past year, it has increased by 1.46 million.

Meanwhile, the significance of the LLU, as against the proven broadband  packages from the big  ISPs in the UK is its allowing the providers of the broadband to offer the customers increasingly cheap broadband packages. Not only this, it also allows the broadband suppliers to offer free broadband as well as free line rental.

LLU is also relevant for the fact that at present, a major part of the broadband users living outside the areas covered by LLU lines are paying more for their broadband services. The reason for the high bill amounts charged on the customers is simply for the application of regional pricing by the ISPs. This in its turn, prevents the customers’ access to the best broadband deals.

Therefore, a good number of broadband experts over the country are of the opinion that the spreading of the LLU in the country is a positive sign as it allows an increased number of broadband customers to take advantage of the cheaper broadband deals.

The flip side of this, however is that there might arise some migration related issues amidst the process of switching back to the BT broadband network from an LLU provider. Some isolated cases, where both the phone line and broadband have been switched to LLU, have also witnessed customers being forced to pay around GBP 125 to get back installed to a standard line.

Pic Credit : Point Topic

BSA, the acronym for Business Software Allowance, which is a non-profit trade association realized with a primary view to advance the ambitions of the software industry along with its business associates. BSA is at present regarded as the front runner amongst the dedicated organizations in the world toiling for the promotion of a legal as well as safe digital world. The organization works in more than eighty countries, and has its head quarter in Washington.

BSA has once again appeared in the limelight, with its revelation that above 27 percent of software in the UK PCs at present were illegal. This was revealed by the agency in their recently released 6^th annual IDC global piracy study. It also disclosed that in the year 2008, the losses related to the industry amounted to GBP 1.49 billion, which was the highest level ever witnessed in the history. The survey conducted by BSA also blames the boost in the broadband internet access and resultant P2P file sharing for creating a friendlier environment for internet piracy.

Nevertheless, contrary to a common belief, the piracy rate in the UK software segment has stalled over the past five years. The history to be precise is; a drop in 2007 to 26 percent, preceding a constant 27 percent for three years prior to that, only to witness a rise yet again in 2009. Speaking of the global standards, half of hundred ten countries all over the world that was subjected to the survey, saw only a nominal 12 percent increase in internet piracy rates.

To effectively counter the menace of online piracy, BSA has forwarded a set of four suggestions for solution proposals of the government. The predominant one among the four is their advice to the government to support a soft regulatory approach to the online software piracy along with the development of a government as well as Ofcom recommended code of practice between right holders and the broadband ISPs. The second advice on the formation of a body focusing on education and enforcement is also significant. The final two are all about augmenting public awareness and education, and leading by example by ensuring the use of legitimate software in the public sector.

VON, the acronym stands for Voice On the Net Coalition. It is a body that includes some big names of the internet sector such as Skype, BT, Microsoft and Intel in their list of membership. It has recently shot back into news as it strongly urged the European Union to take action against those mobile broadband service providers that blocked the VoIP (voice over internet protocol) services deliberately from being accessed on their 3G/cellular networks.

It is an undeniable fact that a number of mobile broadband suppliers in the UK, including Vodafone tend to block VoIP services like Skype from being accessed on their mobile broadband network. The main reason for such actions from the part of the mobile broadband ISPs is believed to be from the fear of the revenue robbed of from the standard voice calls.

The appeal of VON is very much expected to prompt the European Union to draft some new policies that would ensure that mobile broadband service providers do not prevent the users access services such as VoIP over their network. As a matter of fact, the group has been trying to do it for quite a while, although without any considerable success.

On the other hand, mobile broadband operators can practically block certain other online tools too, apart from VoIP over their services. This includes even MSN-like instant messaging clients. However, something worth mentioning here is the significance of mobile broadband visualized by Lord Carter, which is apparent in his interim Digital Britain report.

According to the Digital Britain report put forth by Lord Carter, mobile broadband was expected to play a great role in meeting the end result of broadband for every household in the UK. It is under this circumstance that Lord Carter is also much interested in taking into account such issues. This, in a way gives hope to VON on its fresh issue.