At present the internet service providers can take a time span of twelve weeks to resolve the problems brought to them by the consumers. If the matter remains unsolved even after that, the home owners could take up the problem to a regulator such as Otelo to finalise them. The telecoms watchdog of the UK, Ofcom is all set to reduce this time span to eight weeks from the previous 12 from the autumn, hence exerting increased pressure on the broadband ISPs to solve the problems of their customers quickly.

The chief executive of Ofcom, Ed Richards said that the fresh decision stood for the customers who were not happy with their broadband providers to get a faster resolution, even though in the present scene, the majority of the customers were content with their telecoms services. He added that those issues such as queries on the speed of the connection and general service elements like VoIP solutions, are not taken into consideration by the ISPs even after a time span of eight weeks were very much likely to remain unsolved for a longer time.

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.

The cost of the new package is yet to be decided, however, it is widely expected that the package may cost around £50 per month as Virgin Media has already tested its 50Mb  broadband service in selected areas in the UK. However, it is yet to be seen whether the pricing of the new package for the Virgin broadband customers will include the upgrade fee or the upgrade will be free for the existing customers. To use the super-fast broadband service, the customers will require a new modem which will be provided, when the product is launched.

Currently, Virgin Media XL broadband offers 20Mbps download speed and unlimited download limit. The cable ISP has also signed a deal with the Carphone Warehouse to supply Toshiba L300 laptop to the customers who buy its Triple XL package from the Carphone Warehouse. The package will cost £49 a month for 6 months and £56 after that.

The free Toshiba L300 laptop comes with Windows Vista installed and notable features like:
Intel Pentium Dual Core processor
15.4″ LCD Screen
2GB RAM
120GB Hard Disk, 15.4″ LCD Screen
Webcam.

Ovum, which analysed the growth of top four mobile broadband service providers over the globe reports that 3 mobile broadband packages have received immense response from its customers all over the world as the company has transformed itself into a high quality broadband ISP instead of being just a media-centric, content-obsessed company.

Specifically terming the UK ISP launch of mobile products in the UK as a great success, the report also points out that the marketing strategies of 3 Mobile have been the driving force of this success achieved in a short period.

The research also shows that Orange home broadband offerings with its mobile broadband have also been successful after the France Telecom owned ISP has improved its networks to provide consistent speeds and reliable service.

In Western Europe, the mobile broadband service providers has been rapidly becoming supplementary or replacement for the traditional broadband services like ADSL or cable. The findings show that Telekom, a major provider in Austria has impacted the broadband market with its mobile broadband products.

With Eclipse business broadband packages, the customers can make 1000 minutes free calls to UK landlines and cheaper calls to mobiles (Eclipse TalkMore) and can use other services like Hosted Sharepoint, Hosted Exchange and PC Data backup for emailing and storing digital data and files.

Home Lite offers 2GB monthly download limit for £7.95 a month and includes other features like 10 email addresses and 50MB of personal web space to build your own website.

With Home Select deal, you get 10GB monthly usage allowance, 10 email addresses and 100MB of personal web space for £12.95 a month.

Home Pro is ideal for heavy users or professionals. Home Pro comes with free setup, wireless router and huge 50GB monthly download limit. You also get free overnight usage, Eclipse TalkMore telephone connection, free domain name, 10 email addresses, 100 MB of personal web space and PC Backup service.

Eclipse Home Office, the basic business service from the provider offers 3 GB usage allowance for £14.95 a month and also includes one email address and a TalkMore phone service.

Business 20 will now cost £19.95 a month. You get unlimited email addresses, one free domain name, 250MB web space, TalkMore and access to one Hosted Sharepoint service.

Business 50 which offers 50GB usage allowance will cost £29.95 a month. You get unlimited email addresses, one free domain name, 250MB web space, TalkMore and access to five Hosted Sharepoint services and two Hosted Exchange services.

With Business Unlimited broadband packages you get two 250MB web space, unlimited email addresses and two domain names and access to ten Hosted Sharepoint and five Hosted Exchange services. The package will cost £49.95 a month.