Source: BBC News

BBC’s latest global broadband survey shows that more than three-fourths of the people (79%) have a view that broadband internet access is a fundamental right. GlobeScan conducted the poll on behalf of BBC in 26 nations, questioning 27,000 adults for the study.

Among the Internet users who were surveyed, overwhelming 87% told that everyone should have the fundamental right to use internet, while 70% of the people who were denied internet access for various reasons also agreed with similar view. Read more…

Norfolk County Council has recently organised a workshop to find solution for improving the broadband infrastructure in the region by using different, advanced communication technologies to meet the future needs of the residents and businessnes of Norfolk. The meeting also discussed on how to get funds to accomplish this task.

Representatives from local organisations and some major telecom service giants including  T-Mobile, BT, Babcock, Digital Inclusion, Agency,  Norfolk County Council’s ICT department, East of England Brussels Office, East of England Development and Shaping Norfolk’s Future, Read more…

UK Mobile operator O2 offers mobile broadband dongles at half price for the customers who susbcribe for its Pay & Go packages. New customers can get the dongle for just £10 until 11th March 2010.

O2 Pay & Go mobile broadband offer three plans. ‘Daily’ option offers 500MB usage for £2 per day. Or you can buy 1GB usage for £7.50 per week or you can go for monthly top-up of 3GB usage for £15.

Recently, O2 announced three month free broadband for its pay monthly customers who take up its 18 month contract deals. Today, the mobile ISP has also removed 10GB high usage package means now the pay monthly customers can choose either 1GB or 3GB monthly usage allowance.

With all O2 mobile broadband offers, you also get unlimited wi-fi access.

Government setup a new body ‘Broadband Delivery UK’ (BDUK) that would see its project ‘Universal broadband’ access for all (2Mbps) gets completed by 2012.

Along with, the new organisation established by Digital Britain would also rollout the next generation broadband services using the public funds generated from the 50P broadband tax on UK phone users.

Government’s ambitious dream of providing superfast, next generation broadband promises a coverage of 90% UK population by 2017 and the fibre deployment is likely to cost over £1bn.

Inclusion of new tax proposals in the Digital Economy Bill has already been opposed by broadband service providers like TalkTalk, users and analysts and the debate is still going on, while the opposition says they would scrap the tax if they win the forth coming general election and form the government.

The new report published today says that the government could only achieve 70% coverage by 2017 without private investments such as from service providers who have so far avoided rural Britain over the years.

The report also points out the government’s £1billion Next Generation Fund would help subsidising the cost of network in areas that do not attract private investments or in the regions where local communites come forward to invest on high-speed networks if provided with a subsidy.

Currently, the ISPs focus only on urban areas for launching faster broadband services for pure business reasons while many rural areas and communites are left behind and unable to reap the economic, health and education benefits superfast broadband offers, according to Stephen Timms, the minister of Digital Britain.

“We do not want to risk the digital gap widening, which is why we have put a team of experts in place to ensure further investment is targeted at those people without adequate access.” he added.

Orange broadband reports a sharp decline in its customer base during the period between Q3 and Q4 2009. Now, the total number of ADSL (fixed line) broadband customers of Orange stands at 840,000 customers as of 31 December 2009, comparing to the number of 899,000 in third quarter 2009. Orange customer base continues to shrink, just as we see the ISP lost 55,000 customers during the same quarterly period (between Q2 and Q3) in 2008.

The fall does not spare Orange’s narrowband base as well. The total customer base in this division has declined by more than 50% in just one year and now, there are over 56,000 narrowband customers at 31 December 2009.

Last year, Orange has made significant improvments on its fixed line broadband network and also launched its own 20Mbps faster products in areas which are covered by its LLU network.

Orange currently offers four home broadband packages – Home Starter, Home Select, Home Max and Home Ultra. All of them offer up to 20Mbps download speeds and unlimited downloads and Orange also offer great discounts on the monthly tariff when its mobile customers bundle the home broadband packages.

Recently, one of the speed surveys named Orange as the fastest mobile broadband ISP in the UK. Orange mobile broadband plans are available as pay monthly, pay as you go and also with free laptops offers.

Orange mobile broadband will offer a new dongle, Option 515 which comes with a powerful antenna and 8GB Micro SD card. The dongle will cost £20 while the current E1752 model dongle comes free for Orange’s pay monthly mobile broadband customers.

One of the key factors that affect mobile broadband speeds is the quality of 3G signal at your location. When you use a dongle  indoors, the walls or heavy structures can block the signals or interferences such as from microwave can slow down or even disconnect the service.

The new Orange fast mobile broadband dongle with its antenna has been designed to enhance the signal strength to ensure uninterrupted connection

Broadband provider TalkTalk would invest up to £20 million to improve its broadband network to ensure reliable and faster connections speeds during peak hours.

Broadband speeds often become slower when networks suffer from congestion. TalkTalk, the ISP which has the largest LLU network in the UK, has invested over £500 million on its network so far, to cover 85% of the UK population.

Alex Hollingdale, director of product management at TalkTalk told the ISP’s blog that the latest upgrade would install Gbit Ethernet Fiber technology in 1,800 exchanges to provide better service without congestion.

The main competitor to BT in terms of broadband network size, has recently revealed its plans to enter quadplay UK market by launching its own mobile broadband service.

Government has admitted that it would be quite impractical to provide basic internet service to 12.5 million users by 2014 spring. This original target has now been revised to 7.5 million as ‘not yet connected are likely to be much harder to attract’, according to Stephen Timms, the Minister for Digital Britain.

“Being online is crucial for participation in the 21st Century society – the Internet unlocks a wealth of information and services, giving people more choice in life and access to a range of education, health and financial opportunities.” he said.

Despite total fixed line broadband connections in the UK has reached over 17.7 million, the net additions continue to decline on quarterly basis, show Ofcom’s Telecommunications Market Data Tables for the first two quarters of 2009.

In Q1 2009, the new connections for the quarter stood at 281,000 (2.1% decline comparing to previous quarter). The quarterly net additions for Q2 2009 fell even sharper to 182,000.Comparing to the previous year, the net additions also fell in year 2009 by 6.9%.

In UK, around 65% of homes have their own broadband connections while the broadband penetration among UK businesses has grown sharply in recent years, latest surveys suggest.

Despite the steady growth in numbers, more than six million low income UK population cannot afford to broadband so never used it, according to Martha Lane Fox, the government’s appointed Champion for Digital Inclusion. Her campaign, the Race Online 2012 is looking for ways to get this section of people online within next two years.

Last month, the UK government confirmed the launch of its £300m Home access programme that will provide 270,000 poor families with free laptops and internet connection while the scheme received mixed reactions from users and analysts.

UK broadband ISP services are among the cheapest, comparing to other broadband developed nations, yet, the annual growth rate of broadband uptake in the UK has become slower in last two years, just as revealed by the recent quarterly numbers of major services providers.

Eclipse broadband service provider will receive this year’s Best Customer Focus Award for its dedicated and outstanding customer service.

The Best Business Awards are being given away every year to the companies for their performance and service.

Eclipse ISP, which has won many awards for its customer service during the last four years, continue to deliver what they promise to their customers, says Andrew Areoff, the head of panel that reviewed the nominated ISPs.

” Eclipse Internet is one of a rare breed that embeds customer focus into the fabric of the organisation. The option of a one month rolling contract, high-speed connections for all, free phone calls, quarterly customer satisfaction calls, expert support and high levels of security all come as part of the package.” he went on.

Eclipse offers both consumer and business broadband packages. In the late 2009, the provider has upgraded its network speeds to 24Mbps ADSL 2+ lines so as to compete with its rivals – Sky, TalkTalk and BT.

3 Mobile broadband provider UK will offer Dell Mini 1012 Netbook instead of Samsung N130 netbook with a selected range of its mobile broadband packages.

New customers will need to signup for either 1GB or 5GB (monthly usage limit) deal on a 24 month contract to get the new Netbook that is worth £300. These mobile broadband offers come with a free mobile dongle (Huawei E1750 USB Modem) and will cost £17.50 and £25 per month respectively.

The new Dell Mini 1012 Netbook has 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor, 1GB RAM, 10.1″ HD monitor and 160 GB hard drive and comes with pre-installed Microsoft Windows 7 Starter edition.

Stand-alone mobile broadband deals from 3 for the same specification (1GB and 5GB) without Netbook are available for £7.50 and £15 per month.