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Karoo Has New Policy For Illegal Broadband File Sharers
Karoo, the internet service provider in Hull has introduced a new policy to combat illegal broadband file sharers on its network.
The new ‘3 strikes and you’re out’ policy comes after it was widely reported that the company was disconnecting users suspected of piracy without any prior warning.
Such action provoked anger from the residents of Hull where Karoo is the only ISP with a near monopoly position and also the Open Rights Group and Consumer Focus.
According to reports, in order for a user to get re-connected, they were required to sign a document which admitted their guilt and also confirmed that they would not repeat the offence again.
Commenting on the new policy, the Director of Consumer and Publishing Services at Karoo, Nick Thompson said, “It is evident that we have been exceeding the expectations of copyright owners, the media and Internet users. So, we have changed our policy to move in more line with the industry standard approach, whilst still taking the issues of copyright infringement and illegal internet activity seriously. Going forward, we will provide customers with three written notifications before their service is temporarily suspended”.
Internet piracy is a big problem within the UK and one the government has tried to cover in the recent Digital Britain Report.
Measures including bandwidth capping and site blocking, rather than actual disconnection were put forward as possible ways to help address the problem.
UK Wide Mobile WiMax Broadband Rollout Unlikely
The wholesale wireless network operator, Bluenowhere, has said that a UK wide mobile WiMax broadband rollout is unlikely.
This is reported to be due to a lack of backing from any of the top five mobile broadband providers in the UK, which means that WiMax is likely to only be available for select niche groups.
The main reason why mobile WiMax hasn’t been backed by the UK’s mobile broadband suppliers is because it is a competitor to the Long Term Evolution of 3G for the title of 4G. It seems that most mobile broadband ISP’s prefer LTE to be their future service.
The Chief Executive of Bluenowhere, Harry Aldridge said to ZDnet.co.uk, “We don’t rule out that mobile WiMax could be deployed as a 4G type service in the UK, but it’s our view that it would require either an existing mobile operator to commit to deploying it as their 4G solution, or it would require an equally established company with big pockets to deploy on that basis to have any chance of making it a success”.
Consequently it could be likely that WiMax is used to help fill the gaps that currently exist in the UK’s fixed line broadband coverage network. This could be in various isolated areas across the UK.
TalkTalk’s Free Broadband Connection Offer To End
TalkTalk (talktalk.co.uk) has announced that it is to end its free broadband connection offer this Monday, the 27th July at midnight.
The popular offer provides new customers signing up to TalkTalk’s broadband and phone Essentials package with a saving of £29.99.
Recently rebranded as Britain’s brighter phone and broadband company, TalkTalk is now the UK’s largest broadband supplier following its acquisition of the Tiscali UK ISP business.
In the Essentials package, TalkTalk currently offer the UK’s best value broadband and phone deal at just £6.49 a month.
This gets customers up to 8Mb broadband plus evening & weekend phone calls to UK landlines which includes calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers.
Free local anytime calls are also part of the Essentials package, which is good value when you consider that up to 70% of a households telephone calls are to local numbers.
With the free connection offer ending on Monday night, we advise interested readers to find out more at the talktalk.co.uk website.
They can also ring TalkTalk on 0800 049 7865 or take a look at our independent review of the TalkTalk Essentials package here.
Avanti Switches Satellite Broadband Launcher
Avanti Communications has switched the launch rocket for its satellite broadband supplying Hylas spacecraft.
The Hylas spacecraft is expected to provide 2Mbps satellite broadband speeds to some rural locations and could help with the Government’s Digital Britain plan for 2Mbps broadband speeds for all UK homes by 2012.
As part of the switch, Avanti has signed a contract with Arianespace which will allow them to use either the Arian 5 or the Soyuz launcher. It was originally supposed to launch on the Falcon 9, a US rocket.
David Williams, the Chief Executive of Avanti said, “We’re a classic example of a scrappy British start-up company. A couple of years ago we had very little money. It’s turned out that our market was very much bigger than many of us thought and I now have a blue-chip shareholder base that is prepared to pay for the certainty and reliability of the world’s best launch vehicle”.
The Hylas-1 satellite has had significant investment from British government and is due to be launched next year.
It is thought that around 350,000 households will benefit from the Hylas-1 satellite broadband service with Hylas-2 also in the pipeline.
Mobile Broadband Could Fulfil Broadband USO
Mobile broadband is capable of fulfilling the government’s 2Mbps broadband universal service obligation according to Phil Sheppard, the Director of Technical Solutions at 3 UK.
Sheppard was speaking at the government’s Broadband for All eForum seminar where discussions were taking place on how best to implement the government’s broadband for all pledge in its Digital Britain report.
He said, “Mobile Broadband tends to be capable and commercially capable of providing the 2Mbps broadband universal service commitment and is an extremely efficient way of doing it”.
He continued, “It is very cost effective, it actually doesn’t need government funding, what it needs is access to spectrum, that’s the key”.
Access to the spectrum is an opinion held by a number of other UK mobile broadband providers.
It concerns Ofcom’s attempts to persuade Voadone and O2, the owners of the 2G (900Mhz) band to release it to operators like 3 who could convert the band to 3G and extend their mobile broadband coverage considerably.
This would then allow areas of the UK with no fixed line access to the Internet to receive mobile broadband access instead.
TalkTalk Plan To Spruce Up Broadband Routers
TalkTalk (talktalk.co.uk) has teamed up with students at Goldsmith’s University of London to design a brand new range of broadband routers.
The aim is to create a new design that will push the TalkTalk Broadband router to the forefront of the home instead of being hidden away out of sight.
The new designs have been created with signal strength, enjoyment, energy efficiency and home style in mind.
There have been a few pretty crazy designs created including a jellyfish shaped broadband router. It has fluorescent characteristics just like the real thing while connecting several broadband users through a central hub.
When talking about the design, the Goldsmiths team said, “This is our craziest design and we were given full creative license. We wanted to place the router at the centre of the community, at the heart of the house”.
Some of the other designs included a 24 hour “Route O’clock” which shows the signal strength on a visual display 24 hours a day.
When talking about teaming up with Goldsmith’s, Talk Talk’s Communications Director Mark Schmid said, “Working with the design boffins at Goldsmith’s, we wanted to transform the humble router into something that people would want to shout about.”
