Orange’s broadband service has been restored
Broadband services have been restored to all Orange customers after a full outage on Thursday, reported Orange.
Orange said that another incident whereby customers were unable to get access to their emails on the Blackberry phones had been solved as well. They said that this problem was due to some ‘vandalism’ of critical cables’
Orange have not mentioned as to the reason for the problems for their broadband customers, but they said that they had taken care of the problem soon after it was identified.
However, a BBC News website reader, Kieran Casey, said that he had noticed the problem at 0900 BST on Thursday. At about 1400 BST, he mentioned of a conversation with Orange, who said that the repairs would take ‘another few hours’.
Mr Casey said that, considering the size of Orange, the fact that they had this problem for such a long time was quite unbelievable and ridiculous. Orange Broadband, which ran under the name Wanadoo previously, has a customer base of nearly 1 million in the fixed broadband sector in the country.
The firm, with over 15 million mobile customers, had made a recent announcement saying that they would merge their UK mobile operations with T-Mobile.
A spokesperson for Orange said that they were aware of Blackberry customers experiencing problems in accessing their emails. The spokesperson also said that they were aware that it was due to a vandalism of the cabling infrastructure which had been supplied to them by a third party provider in Heathrow, London.
In another incident, said the spokesperson, some broadband customers may have had a problem accessing the internet. They said that they were able to confirm the solving of this problem and that full service had been resumed for all their broadband customers.
Source - BBC News
Broadband research says mobile broadband “slower than said”
Broadband Expert, a comparison site in the United Kingdom, recently released its report saying mobile broadband companies in the country are not true to their advertisement claims.
This came after Broadband Expert surveyed 3,342 broadband connections for five months and found that users noted only 1.1Mb download speed, a stark contrast to those stated in the companies’ advertisements. While the speeds stated in these ads totaled to 4.5Mbs for all five surveyed networks, only 1.1Mbps resulted.
When experts raised queries on how the survey was conducted, Broadband Expert explained the tests were performed by broadband users on the firm’s website. The users were required to select their ISP, the advertised speed of the connection, and the speed that they got.
Broadband Expert commercial director Rob Webber explained further that some providers had higher testing than others, while no sufficient data from British Telecom and Virgin Mobile was compiled to come up with a valid result. Only the networks Vodafone, Three, O2, Orange and T-Mobile were tested.
According to Webber, the mobile ISPs shouldn’t indicate in their ads the maximum possible speed and focus on the average speed instead, so as not to mislead the customers.
The test results were countered by Forrester Research, a market research entity, saying it is difficult to compare mobile ISPs substantially, considering foremost that there were various variables involved in pitting one average speed to another.
Forrester analyst Ian Fogg said mobile internet comparisons aren’t the same with home-based broadband as the varying locations of users and time of use does have an impact of the connectivity and speed.
Vodafone commented on having the lowest percentage of advertised speeds saying their company is keener on providing reliable and consistent connections, and not on speed. A statement from Vodafone indicated they are communicating service developments with their customers, downplaying the Broadband Expert study.
Click here for related information: BBC News
Flaw compromises the security of O2 routers
The Guardian reports that anyone having a router provided by O2 might find that they are vulnerable to remote attacks, according to an O2 customer, who has repeatedly tried to get O2 to take notice of this problem.
The details about this are fairly complicated and depends on ‘cross – site request forgery’, something most of us (including myself) may have never heard of. This is a very serious issue and you should be worried. If in possession of an O2 router, you should reset the default password and ensure that O2 hasn’t changed it back, according to the O2 customer, Andrew Brown.
Nearly 457,000 of O2’s customers could be affected by this as nearly all of O2’s customers would be using the Wireless Box II or III, the only routers being offered by O2. Zen Broadband as well as Be responded to check whether the routers they provide are also affected by this problem.
According to Andrew Brown, O2 has supplied a remote update to the Wireless Boxes whereby their password is set to the serial number of the box. Though this will reduce the problem to a particular extent, it won’t get rid of it. The software release is still vulnerable to this problem.
Be Broadband had sent out a letter to its customers with regard to this, including instructions for the tech – savvies, but the penultimate paragraph should be taken note of. It says that a remote attach might lead to prompts for your router password. You should never comply with this request unless you have initiated the process. Therefore, beware of this and be aware. It is great to see that Be is being precautionary about this. O2 seem to have been doing this very thing – it is because of this that people find their admin passwords being changed suddenly.
Faster broadband access part of talks by Peter Mandelson
The leaders of the top five mobile phone networks in the country have been called up for a meeting by Lord Mandelson as part of ambitions by the government to enable access to fast broadband internet access in the country by 2012.
The meeting, held on Tuesday, is the second such meeting in 2 weeks that the business secretary has personally intervened in this horse – trading before creating a digital economy bill during the autumn. This legislation is set to implement some of the recommendations of June’s Digital Britain report, but some of the proposals have fallen foul of the realpolitik of Westminister.
One of the main recommendations of the report, which was a 6 pound annual levy on phone lines to finance the next – gen super – fast fibre optic broadband cables, has already fallen over as it won’t get approval from the Conservatives.
Universal broadband access, according to the report, could be possible only if there was a more wide use of mobile broadband as well as increased coverage in remote parts of UK.
However, the access to universal broadband largely depends on the 5 networks reaching a deal on the usage of the 900MHz wireless spectrum that was given to Vodafone and O2 when they had started operations during the 80s. this spectrum would be great for rural broadband due to its capability to carry signals over a long distance. The other networks don’t have it.
A deal to re-apportioning the 900MHz airwaves should be arrived at before the government tries to sell the 800MHZ spectrum which will be returned to it when analogue TV signals are discarded in 2012, which is also great for mobile coverage in rural areas.
The meeting with the chief executives will aim at ‘banging some heads together’, according to some insider information.
In return for this, mobile phone companies will have their 3G licenses extended into the indefinite future, thereby saving them a large amount of money, which fixed – line operators say could be used to finance next – gen broadband networks.
Source - guardian.co.uk
Africa surviving on mobile high-speed internet connections
While the rest of the world is experiencing more advanced benefits of high-speed internet, so are African businessmen and individuals – with mobile technology.
The innovations that come with mobile phones are most welcome in Africa as it has become the leading tool in entrepreneurial pursuits, communications and technical solutions for computer programs, software development and even website management.
Such creative and ingenious results are borne out of necessity, with Africans being known to live productively in scarce conditions. This is true as the recent years have witnessed innovative mobile services from the citizens themselves.
Today, we now see these innovations in the “call me” services and the mobile movements of money for purchase of products and payment of services. Both have been proven effective means of communications and holding business, long before other developing countries have employed such methods. Having Vodafone and Safaricom making use of the payment-via-phone scheme came only later after the innovations have been started by the Africans themselves.
But it does not stop there. With or without fiber optics, more advancement on mobile technologies are currently under works from the poorest whiz to the private sector talents. Holding testaments to the smart solutions are showcased at sites like Africagadget. From detectors of water areas abundant with sea bounty to automobile tracking systems all using just a mobile phone, the innovations are varied and have great potential for mainstream market.
The good news is that the academic communities are supporting such creative pursuits with universities seeing East Africa as a future leader in information and communications technology in the continent. Other fuels to this growing potential for Africa are the shipping of more data-enabled mobile phones to Africa and new bandwidth for the new wireless technologies being brought to the region.
For more information on this post, click here: news.bbc.co.uk
Vodafone’s Mobile WiFi router signals entry into the MiFi market
Vodafone has recently announced that they will be launching a new mobile broadband device that will allow users to share their own connection with a maximum of 5 Wi-Fi enabled gadgets.
The network operator, Vodafone, has also announced a ‘Vodafone Mobile Broadband Hotspot’ gadget, which is also known as the MiFi 2352, which enables users to connect to a number of gadgets wirelessly from any gadgets within a radius of 10 m in the broadband network of the company.
The device, which is just a size of a credit – card, has been produced by Novatel, will enable users to connect to a number of Wi-Fi enabled gadgets, which include laptops, digital cameras and gaming consoles.
It also has a one – touch power switch as well as an internal battery which provides a maximum of 4 hours of uninterrupted usage with a single charge.
The device is capable of providing download speeds of upto 7.2 Mbps and upload speeds of upto 5.2 Mbps and it depends on the coverage of the network within a particular area. In addition to that, it also provides a large amount of storage space, which is due to the memory card slot which enables you to use a 16 GB microSD card as well, thereby turning it into a flash drive as well.
Some of the readers of itproportal.com have told them that the 3G router isn’t exactly much of a big thing as any 3G phone which is WiFi enabled could potentially be made to function as a router. This does make a lot of sense and it would have been quite useful if users are able to change their phones into a fully – fledged router without a hitch.
Source - itproportal.com
UK broadband speeds slower than those around the world
A global broadband connections survey has shown that the broadband speeds in the UK are much lesser than that of countries around the world.
This survey, conducted for the Communications Workers of America (CWA), showed that the speed of internet which was experienced by most UK broadband customers was lesser than the speed of nearly 30 developed countries.
Moreover, most of these countries have had to overcome a number of geographical obstacles which are not present in the UK.
As an example, the average speed connection in the US is 5.1 MB, which makes it 29th in the world. This is despite the fact that the size of the country as well as the number of rural states make it less cost – effective to supply broadband to particular parts of the country.
The other countries with faster broadband include the Netherlands and Sweden, where they got 11 Mbps and 12.8 Mbps speeds respectively. However, South Korea is simply amazing with the average speed being 20.4 Mbps.
This survey is likely to renew criticism of the Digital Britain report, one of the proposals being to deliver 2 Mbps broadband speeds to every home in the country in 2012. Critics say that this speed isn’t enough to cater to next – gen broadband services.
However, speeds in the country could improve in the future with a recent announcement by BT that they had finished the initial stages of an upgrade to their network which would provide millions of people with a 20 Mbps connection, which would be achieved partly by the ADSL2+ technology and the free software BT Broadband Accelerator.
Virgin Media is also entering into a venture to improve speeds with their fibre optic broadband network and has been marketing a 50 Mbps connection since late last year. September will see the price of this reduce from 50 pounds a month to 30 pounds, thereby potentially increasing the usage of this high – speed broadband in the country. The marketing manager of Top 10 Broadband, Jessica McArdle, said that No.31 is not the ranking which the UK should have and hoped that the 50 Mbps package and 20 Mbps package offered by Virgin Media and BT will push the ranking of the country further up!
3 Mobile Broadband
Broadband connectivity for mobile computing needs is offered by 3 Mobile in two modes: Pay Monthly and Pay As You Go. Either way, you get a choice of USB dongles or modems you connect to your laptop or netbook.
HSDPA Network
3’s high speed network revolves around the HSDPA or High Speed Downlink Packet Access network, providing true broadband speeds to your internet access at home office or on the road. While other networks boasts about giving you HSDPA’s theoretical limits of up to 2.8 Mbps, you never can get that. Even if 3’s theoretical network speeds can reach 3.5Mbps, it is candid enough to say that your download speed can be diminished be factors such as (1) your proximity from the mobile masthead or antenna (2) obstruction like trees and buildings between you and its mast, and more importantly, (3) the users sharing the same mast. 3 Mobile subscribers are assured download speeds from 600Kbps to 1.6Mbps.
Coverage, Speed and Connection Reliability
These are the three areas that 3 Mobile promises to excel at for its mobile broadband subscribers. You get to connect to its HSDPA mast anywhere in the country. 3 Mobile boasts of having the widest HSDPA coverage reach in all of Britain at 90%. Compare that to T-Mobile’s 84% and Vodafone’s 81%.
Once you’re online, you are sure to enjoy download speeds in the range from 0.6 Mbps to 1.6 Mbps. A 3-4 minute MP3 file can be download in 30 seconds or less. Once in the network, there’s little or no chance of getting disconnected while moving on the road. That’s called high reliability.
Enhancing the Speed and Coverage
3 is currently upgrading its network to secure twice the download speed at HSUPA maximum of 7.2Mbps from its current 3.6Mbps standard while operating greater capacity and coverage. This network enhancement is expected to start rolling out in October with London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester as the first UK cities to enjoy its benefits. By the end of 2010, 3 is expected to reach 98.5% broadband coverage in the UK with 30% faster internet speeds over what current subscribers already enjoy with their mobile broadband high speed connection.
Virgin Mobile Broadband
Virgin Mobile is an affiliate of the giant Virgin Media since early 2007. It is not a telecoms company on its own like O2 or Vodaphone. Rather, it is actually classified as a “mobile virtual network operator or MVNO – a company that uses a Telco’s network of its mobile phone and broadband service which in Virgin’s case is T-Mobile. It was, in fact, the world’s first MVNO when it launched in 1999. But it was the last to get into the 3G band wagon, offering the service in the UK starting last October.
It offers only one USB broadband dongle, limited monthly postpaid plans and no pay-as-you-go plan. Its bundled broadband service with a laptop is rather late in coming but is unique. Rather than offering Toshibas or Samsungs like other mobile network operators do, Virgin is opting to put out its own brand with the Virgin Media Freedom Netbook for just 20 per month on a package that has 10 GB download limit with fixed line broadband and telephone.
Its advantage lies in the fact that it is positioned within the Virgin Media Quadplay package that offers cable TV, telephone, fixed line cable broadband and mobile phone services. The mobile broadband service should put it as a 5th service, but we don’t see a Virgin Media Quintoplay forthcoming anytime soon.
Virgin’s Post Paid Plan
Virgin Mobile offers a monthly payment scheme on a couple of Post Paid plans. You can opt to get a 1 GB download limit on its 12-month post paid contract at a special price of ₤5 when you buy with L or XL cable broadband. Or get a larger 3 GB download limit for 18 months at ₤15 per month. In either plans you get a free broadband dongle with a 3GB download allowance and advertised speeds up to 1.8Mb.
Why Choose Virgin Mobile
- There are no connection fees.
- The sleek black and silver socket is the same Huawei E116 used by T-Mobile that’s compatible with either Mac or PC. It has a socket for external antenna for improved mobile reception and a microSD slot that makes it a flash drive in one.
- Virgin uses the T-Mobile network, so you can be confident about its coverage across much of the UK. You just won’t get access to T-mobile’s Wi-Fi hotspots.
There’s a 6-month half price on all Post-Paid contracts.
Vodaphone Mobile Broadband
Vodaphone is UK’s second most popular mobile networking and internet service provide after O2 and with operations across five continents and 33 partner networks used by about 190 million subscribers, it is also one of the leading global players in mobile telecommunications services. Its network coverage reach in the UK provides local subscribers access to its broadband 3G and HSDPA networks for speeds of up to 3.6 Mbps.
Broadband Plans
Vodaphone mobile offers three major broadband internet plans designed to suit various internet surfing needs from the simple daily email checks to downloading videos form the net. It starts with pay-as-you-go deal branded as TopUp and Go to the monthly post paid plans that include a netbook starting at ₤25 per month.
- TopUp and Go
You pay only ₤15 per 1GB of downloads without any 30-day expiry. The only catch is you need to pay one-time for the vodaphone broadband USB dongle at ₤34.99.
- Post Past Plans
Vodaphone mobile offers various plans that carry 12, 18 or 24 month contracts with 3GB or 5GB download limits with two cost options at ₤15 or ₤25 per month. All options include free broadband USB dongles in two models attached to the plan both with microSD slots.
- Post Paid with free Laptop
This plan offers a free Dell Inspiron Mini 10 that already has a built-in broadband modem and is available when you take out its 24-month contract for either ₤25 per month on a 1GB download limit or ₤30 per month for a 3 GB download limit.
Why Choose Vodaphone?
- You can opt to get the Vodaphone passport which enables you to take the UK rates with you to over 35 countries that includes New Zealand and Australia.
Vodaphone’s TopUp and Go is the only pay-as-you-go broadband plan in the UK that has no 30-day expiry.
