BE Broadband & O2 Broadband announce intentions to launch fibre network

BE Broadband‘s Managing Director Chris Stening has said in a statement on their website that he is ”determined to offer a fibre product, and that he hopes they’ll be able to launch exactly that later this year (2011).

In a somewhat coordinated statement, BE’s sister company O2 Broadband have also announced that they intend to run fibre optic trials later this year.

Based on the current positioning of each of the companies, we can assume that BE’s fibre effort will look to satisfy their speed and bandwidth hungry customers with a truly unlimited offering. O2 on the other hand will be catering for the more mainstream audience with more varied packages which will most likely involve some kind of cap on speed and bandwidth.

It’s worth saying that at this stage this is pure speculation as neither company have announced any solid details of the plans that they’ll offer. It should also be noticed that both ISP’s will be utilising BT’s existing fibre network so speeds will be capped at 40Mbps, like many of the other ISP’s who are utilising BT’s wholesale network (including the likes of  Talk Talk, Plusnet and BT themselves.

Chris Stening from BE gave the following statement:

“There’s terrific demand for a fibre service and I hear all your feedback online and by phone. We’re determined to offer a fibre product with all the things you love about BE – great service, award winning support and super fast speeds, no matter how much you download.

BE members know that speed is affected by much more than the materials of the cabling that runs into the cabinet though. In practice that means an unlimited, unthrottled connection from BE could be faster for downloading films than a fibre connection with traffic management.

So our plans for fibre have to be something unlimited and unshaped too, otherwise it simply defeats the object of having greater speed. It’s great to be told you could get speeds up to some high level, but with traffic management it is unlikely you’ll get it for long. We are unlikely to be the cheapest in the market but we are determined to be the best.”

O2‘s Head of Home and Broadband, Felix Geyr, said:

“While I can’t give too many details of the service at this stage we want to ensure that we will provide the right customer experience in place before we go live. As a result we are currently looking at the infrastructure and where in the UK we run the trial.

What we are determined to do is offer a service that has all the things you love about our existing LLU broadband packages – great service and support and of course super fast speeds. The fine tuning of the packages, including pricing, is currently being decided and I will update you over the coming months when we have more detail.

As a result our current planning is for a service to be available later this year. Nearer the time we will launch a pre-registration programme, prioritising our existing customers first.”

If you can’t wait for either BE or O2 to launch their fibre offering, don’t forget that Talk Talk, Plusnet, Virgin Media and of course BT Broadband all have their own fibre optic products ready for your consumption. As soon as more news is announced from O2 and BE Broadband, we’ll be the first to let you know.

Eclipse Broadband named one of “the best ISPs” for broadband

Eclipse Broadband have this week received a much sought after recommendation by the consumer watchdog ‘Which?’.

Which? only officially recommends four broadband providers including the newly commended Eclipse, and bases their recommendation on providers who can offer services to their users that ‘want to be sure to get broadband that delivers on quality and service’ – a high commendation.

The recommendations are created from feedback of thousands of customers based on their real life experiences of a providers service – much like the Broadband.org – broadband reviews section, which collates our users broadband reviews to help you to make the best decision about who to choose.

Ceri Stanaway from Which? commented that ‘Over the last few Which? broadband satisfaction surveys, Eclipse has slowly but surely increased its customer score and has now attained the coveted status of Which? Recommended Provider. Only broadband providers that offer a great all round broadband experience for their customers make it as Which? Recommended Providers, and Eclipse‘s achievement goes to show that an ISP’s investment in its service can really pay off when it comes to customer satisfaction.’

Eclipse have consistently featured in the top 10 Which? recommended broadband suppliers – spending the past year at number six before moving into the top five this month.

Director of Eclipse, Clodagh Murphy says, “Commendations like this from such a consumer-based watchdog as Which? are the most significant for us because it’s based on our real reputation among our real customers. I’m incredibly proud that our hard work and dedication to becoming the UK’s best broadband provider has now been recognised.”

Eclipse offer both home and business broadband, and have the capacity to offer fibre optic connections to give you the best possible speeds. Checkout the Eclipse Broadband website today to see their entire product range.

Half Price Value Broadband from Plusnet!

Good news from Plusnet this week, who are looking to continue their reign as the cheapest broadband provider in the UK, with a great new half price offer.

Until the 19th of July, you’ll get half price Plusnet ‘Value Broadband and Calls’ when you also take the Home Phone bundlePlusNet get this offer simply enter the code ‘half9′ to get this great deal.

The offer is available only on the Value package at the moment, which you can take with either of their call packages;

PlusNet Value Broadband + Evening and Weekend Calls

• Download Speeds of up to 20Mbps
• 10GB Usage Allowance (Unlimited overnight)
• McAfee PlusNety
• Free Wireless Router
• Evening and Weekend Calls to UK Landlines (Includes 0845/0870)
• Free Calls to Plusnet Support

PlusNet Value Broadband + Anytime Calls

• Download Speeds of up to 20Mbps
• 10GB Usage Allowance (Unlimited overnight)
• McAfee Security
• Free Wireless Router
• Anytime Calls to UK Landlines (Includes 0845/0870)
• 25% Discount off Top International Call Destinations
• Free Calls to Plusnet Support

Just go to the Plusnet website and enter the half9 code to get the deal!

Virgin Media 100mb ultra fast broadband available to 100 million UK households

Virgin Media have this week announced that the rollout of ther 100Mb ultra fast broadband network has passed the 4 million mark. Meaning that 4 million UK households can now subscribe to the service which will give them speeds of up to sixteen times the average UK broadband speed.

The state of the art fibre optic network is now in over 100 towns and cities, and Virgin Media have confirmed that they’re still on schedule to deliver their target of 13 million UK households being connected to their network by the middle of 2012.

Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media, said: “As data consumption rises and consumers grow increasingly reliant on their broadband service, only Virgin Media’s unique network is primed to cater for the UK’s impending data explosion. With four million homes now able to ‘get in the fast lane’ with our 100 Mbps service, the UK is racing up the broadband league tables and we’re delighted to be playing the leading role in boosting the UK’s digital infrastructure.”

The company is also in the throes of trialling even faster broadband connections offering speeds of up to 200Mbps as well as trialling an innovative 1.5Gbps service in East London.

O2 Home Broadband offer 3 months free broadband

O2 are still running their 3 months free broadband offer on their ‘The All Rounder’ and ’The Works’ packages.

O2 have an even better offer for their existing mobile customers. If you’ve had an O2 mobile for 2 years or more, you can get The All Rounder and The Works packages with a fantastic 6 months free. Whats more, as an existing O2 mobile customer when your free broadband period has ended, you’ll get £5 off your bills every month.

O2 like to keep their packages simple, so they’ve still just got three broadband packages, ranging from ‘The Basics’, to ‘The All Rounder’, to ‘The Works’. We’ve put together a summary of each of the packages which have free broadband offers currently running, to help you to make your decision.

‘The All Rounder’

The all rounder does what it says. This package gives you unlimited downloads (fair usage policy applies), with up to 20Meg download, and 1.3Meg upload speeds. Line rental is included in this package, so you just pay for the calls that you use. You get a wireless router, plus security software for use on up to three computers. You’ll also get completely free UK customer support. The All Rounder package is £20.00 a month if you’re on O2. (Plus a £0.00connection fee.)

‘The Works’

With The Works package, you get the best of everything. You’ll get up to 20Meg download speeds, and up to 2.5Meg upload speeds. You’ll also get unlimited downloads, which is also subject to a fair usage policy. Line rental is also included with this package, so you’ll just pay for the calls that you use. With this package you get free security software for use on up to 5 computers, and you’ll also get a static IP address. This package is £28.50 a month if you’re on O2. (Plus a £0.00connection fee.) £33.50 a month if you’re not. (Plus a £25.53 connection fee)

Checkout our O2 broadband deals page to signup now

Sky Broadband launch 6 months half price broadband with call and line rental

Sky have just launched a terrific broadband offer which will give you 6 months half price broadband with call and line rental

You’ll get up to 20Mb unlimited broadband half price for 6 months, with call and line rental. Get £5 a month for the first 6 months, then just £10 a month thereafter.

Offer Summary:

• Up to 20Mb unlimited broadband half price for 6 months, with call and line rental
• Prices from £5 a month
• Then £10 a month after the first 6 months
• Offer ends 29^th September 2011

Checkout our SKY Broadband price comparison page for all of their current offers

Broadband.org’s top tips for a faster internet connection

If you’ve been following our posts this week on getting the fastest broadband connection possible, then hopefully you’ll be seeing a marked improvement in your download and upload speeds.

Today we’ve got a top tip for you that can make a significant and instant difference to your broadband speed.

Follow our guide to disconnecting your bell wire

The bell wire is the wire which comes into your bundle of wires from BT, which traditionally has provided power to your telephones bell, or ringer. Modern telephones don’t generally require this wire, so the only thing this wire will be doing is providing interference your the rest of your cabling. disconnecting and removing this wire will allow your broadband connection to run without interference.

As with all of our tips, we recommend running our broadband speed test before trying this  out, so that you can accurately measure the impact it’s had on your broadband speed.

Follow these instructions to disconnect your bell ringer wire;

1. Locate the wire in your phone socket connected to pin 3 (if it’s been colour coded correctly, then it’ll be orange)
2. Disconnect this wire, and any other wires that aren’t connected to pins 2 and 5

Do NOT:

1. Disconnect pins 2 or 5 – these deliver your phone and internet signals
2. Be careful not to mess with the wiring behind BT’s master socket

That’s it! Now run our broadband speed test again to see how much extra speed your connection has to offer.

broadband.org top tips for a faster internet connection part 2

Following on from yesterday’s broadband tips, which gave you a taster of how you can get a faster broadband connection, today we bring you a more technical tip to help to optimise the speed of your broadband connection.

This tip relates to the ‘channel’ that your wireless connection is transmitted on. The channel indicates the radio frequency that your connection is broadcast over.

With almost every household being connected to the internet, and with the abundance of ‘free router’ offers available from broadband providers these days, it’s likely that most of your neighbours will have wifi connections too, meaning that your signal can be drowned out, or at least interfered with by your neighbours networks.

The trick, is to find out which channels your closest wifi networks use, and to change your frequency to a clear channel.

We’ve outlined some simple steps below to help you to optimise your broadband connection.

1. Download a piece of software called Inssider, for Windows or ‘the package manager’ for Linux. This will show you the channel of any ‘in range’ connections.

2. Login to your router’s administration area (the specifics of this can be found, by doing a quick Google search for ‘your router make + model’ + ‘administration login’) Here you should find out the IP address, and default username and password that you need to login to the admin area of your router

3. The final step, is to find out how to manually change your wireless channel. This is possible on most routers, and again, try searching for your routers make and model, plus ‘change channel’ – to find more detailed instructions

4. Run our broadband speed test again to see how much quicker your connection is.

Let us know how much success you’ve had with this this top broadband tip

Broadband.org’s top tips – how to speed up your internet connection

This week at Broadband.org we’re going to be sharing some long kept secrets about how to make the most of your broadband connection. Of course it’s important to choose the broadband provider that’s going to deliver the fastest speeds to your house, but once you’re connected, there are a number of steps you can take to ensure that you’re getting the best speeds from your broadband package.

Firstly, it’s worth checking what speeds you’re currently achieving by going to our broadband speed test page and making a note of your results. When you’ve done that you can start implementing the recommendations that we’re going to be putting forward every day this week, starting with the easiest of all … where to put your wireless router;

Get better speeds by carefully positioning your wireless router

Your wireless router will work best when you’ve got a clear ‘line of sight’, meaning that there are no obstacles between your router, and your wireless adapter (whether that’s in your laptop, desktop, phone or tablet). We all know however that this isn’t always possible, and we’re not suggesting that you should start knocking down walls, but it’s worth considering that when choosing a suitable location for your wireless router, you choose a position which will give your wireless signal a route of little resistance to your computer.

Another tip for today, given that it’s our first post in this series:

Plug your router into your telephone master socket

If you’ve got the option of plugging your broadband router into a master socket or an extension socket, then always go for the master socket. The extra cable that your broadband data will have to travel through, when plugged into an extension socket, will degrade the quality, and speed of your connection. This is however one to balance against what you’ve learnt in our first step. If your broadband master socket is hidden away in a cupboard or behind lots of walls, then you may be better off using the extension socket, as cables go through walls better than a wifi signal. Check which works out best for you by using our broadband speed test

Virgin Media to offer £100 off all TV, Broadband & Phone packages

Virgin Media have launched a fantastic new money off discount for their triple packages. You’ll receive £100 off all of their ‘triple packages’, which is any package with TV, Broadband and a phone line – the biggest discount ever to be offered on their triple packages.

Virgin Media have said that the discount can be used in conjunction with their existing free connection and free V HD Set Top Box.

Virgin Media have a wide selection of packages, ranging from standalone broadband, to broadband and TV, or the whole caboodle, with Broadband, Phone and TV. Packages start from around £20 per month, plus another £12.99 for the Virgin Media phone line (it should be said that from the 1st of August 2011 the cost of their landline will increase to £13.20.)