Posts Tagged broadband
BT launch new ISP offer
Posted by Jeremy in Latest Broadband News on August 29, 2011
Openreach, the part of BT that is held accountable for organising access to the local BT telecoms and broadband network is offering a new incentive for ISP’s, relating to their copper connections, in as bid to encourage users to return to BT’s phone and broadband services. The main gist of the offer is that BT will offer a financial reward to Internet Service Providers who are able to acquire new lines where old liners have been stopped in the past.
Openreach believe that this offer will give them a chance to take back business from rivals such as Virgin Media and Sky, because anyone signing up with an ISP that is using the Openreach network will effectively be coming to BT. The following is a statement released by BT Openreach in relation to the offer:
“This offer is intended to incentivise Communication Providers (CPs) to utilise lines that have previously been installed but where use has now been stopped or to provide additional lines to existing customer premises. It is based on incremental growth net of early cancellations above a pre-determined Background Threshold run-rate and for each incremental line CPs will receive a £50 incentive payment. Start orders and new lines to a premise will be validated to ensure that there is not a current cease or stop order within the last 3 months to demonstrate genuine incremental growth.”
Companies that sign up to this scheme will be armed with a list of copper telephone lines that Openreach has identified as being stopped for over three months, which will give the ISP’s a chance to target the right audience.
Of course, at the moment the focus is often on super fast broadband, and if this is more the sort of service you are looking for, then you have to be sure that you are signing up with the right provider. At the moment you can find some great review sites online. For instance, if you are considering going for an Orange broadband plan, all you have to do is to search for Orange broadband reviews and you will find the sorts of sites you need.
Ofcom crackdown on TalkTalk
Posted by Jeremy in Latest Broadband News on August 25, 2011
As is often the case, it has again been highlighted that Talk Talk, the well known ISP has hit trouble with the regulatory service Ofcom.
In another disappointing Pr exersize by the huge firm, they have been fined £3 million by Ofcom for incorrectly billing around 3000 customers. The main problems were bills asking customers to pay for services that they didn’t actually have as part of their contract. It seems that many people had received itemised bills indicating that payments were necessary for broadband or phone packages that should not have been attributable to those customers.
Ofcom has been keeping a close eye on Talk Talk since a breach of regulations that occurred back in February, when it was discovered that an incredible £2.5 million had to be repaid to customers as Talk Talk had got 62,000 bills wrong. Despite being aware of the watchful eyes following them, Talk Talk still managed to make another 3000 mistakes with billing in the months that followed, meaning of courser that significant action had to be taken by Ofcom. Ofcom did however give an indication that Talk Talk had taken steps to try to stem the flow of errors in bills, but it is clear that the problems have not completely gone away.
It appears that those most affected customers were ones who had already closed accounts, which is an on going issue, and has been for some years, but it does appear that things have been put in place to attempt to make sure that this is an ever decreasing problem. Despite Ofcom believing that Talk Talk have made improvements, they still feel that not enough is being done, and they have publicly stated that they will be keeping an eye on the company for the foreseeable future.
Tesco up offers in broadband services
Posted by Jeremy in Latest Broadband News on August 25, 2011
Tesco is making efforts to increase their market share in the competitive broadband market.
Tesco have for some time had a reputation of being able to supply electronics contracts at good rates, and have had significant success with their mobile phone contracts, and it would now appear that they are due to make inroads into the broadband market.
Tesco have just launched a new deal which will give their new customers four whole months of broadband connection absolutely free of charge, and alongside this there will be no set up fee and customers will also receive 1000 clubcard points as soon as they sign their contract. This offer is going to be available with any of their broadband and phone bundle packages.
At the moment it would appear that this offer is going to cover the evening and weekend package, as well as the broadband with inclusive any time minutes package. With the former, you can expect up to 20Meg download speeds, one clubcard point for every pound you spend, UK call centres to contact, and inclusive landline calls during the evenings and of course on weekends. The second deal is similar in nature, but allows the user landlines calls at anytime absolutely free.
This is clearly a good package, but it is still important that you assess what else is available at the time of purchase. Make sure you use the internet to help you to decide which package is going to be best for you. At the moment plenty of people are still going with Sky, and they do have some great offers, but make sure you check their standard of service in your area. A great way to do this is to use the Sky broadband reviews that you can find online. They will give you an idea of how good they are for customers in your area, and this can help you to make the right decision when it comes to choosing your broadband provider.