3, by introducing a fresh cheap broadband-laptop offer has definitely treaded ahead to revamp its mobile broadband contracts. The new offer that also includes a mobile broadband dongle extends the launch of fresh month long rolling contracts. A generous usage limit is also amongst the offers.

A monthly payment of GBP 22.50 over twenty four months will be the commitment awaiting the consumers signing up to the fresh broadband laptop deal of 3. By this deal, the consumers are provided with an Acer 6920G-583 laptop, mobile broadband usage of 15GB and a dongle.

The Acer laptop that is part of the deal is priced GBP510 in the general laptop market of the United Kingdom. It features an LCD of Full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) and 16 inch diagonal size. It is also a widescreen display. Other highlights of the laptop are; a 1.3MP built-in webcam, Bluetooth and 3GB RAM.

According to the calculations of 3,  the usage allowance of 15GB is more than enough to engage in 15,000 emails, 480 x 4 minute music tracks, half hour video downloads x 10 and web surfing of 150 hours. Additionally, a free bundle of 75 text messages a month is also given by 3 as value added service.

Another significant aspect of the fresh introduction by 3 is its broadband UK product array of month long rolling contracts (30 day contracts). The contracts, priced at GBP 15 a month entitle the consumers to use 5GB as allowance, apart from being at liberty to terminate the deal at their wish.

It should be noted that BT broadband provider is already in the process of deploying ADSL 2+ broadband products in this area in near future. Thus, KCOM has no other option but to reduce its wholesale price so that it can retain its customers when BT broadband becomes its potential competitor. As for retail broadband suppliers in this area, they also have to bear the costs of taking broadband service to the end users, so it is needless to say that customers get cheaper broadband when the wholesale prices come down,

Meanwhile, Kcom released the following statement:
“Our wholesale broadband prices are reviewed annually.Due to increases in our customer numbers, our costs per customer have been reduced and we are able to reduce the broadband prices.

These reductions mean we now provide a framework of wholesale pricing at the same level or cheaper than BT’s.

We have always said we would welcome competition in the area and believe the changes announced today demonstrate our continued commitment to providing an open network for other ISPs to offer services.”

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.Â

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.Â

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.”

“We are aware that there is an issue in this area which is currently being addressed.
We will post in here when further updates are available. Sorry for any inconvenience caused. As well as having an impact on gaming, this issue is a cause of peak time slow speeds and is currently affecting: iTunes access, VPN/FTP/RDP just to mention a few.”

It seems the migratory process of Pipex customers to Tiscali network was behind the this technical problem. Further the ISP said the engineers were fixing the problem and the normalcy would return soon as a few service changes were made late Friday night.

Meanwhile, Tiscali’s process of shifting Pipex customers to its shared LLU network is continuing. While this move will not affect the customers with regard to migration, however, they have to bear with the traffic shaping that Tiscali uses with its unlimited broadband packages. Traffic management which restricts the speed during the peak hours may pose problems for those who log on to P2P sites or play online games.

Tiscali’s cheap broadband offers come with unlimited download limit, however, as the speed is managed by the ISP, it is unlikely that one will get satisfactory speeds during the peak hours. In such cases, one has to upgrade to high level packages which could have higher monthly cost.

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.