Geographic

ASA Rules NTL Broadband Not “5x faster”
NTL’s claim that 300K broadband offer was “more than 5 times faster than standard 56K dial-up internet” has been happy-slapped down by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), who condemned it as being in breach of TV Advertising Standards Code.
The offending broadcast appeared on Broadband UK (NTL’s own, self-promotional channel) and extolled the virtues of NTL’s “3 for £30” package, which lumps in a telephone service, a digital television service and a broadband internet service.
The advert claimed that NTL’s broadband service was “more than 5 times faster than standard 56K dial-up internet” with the presenter adding that subscribers could “e-mail your friends and family all around the world a lot faster, in fact five times faster”.
A viewer was having none of it, convinced that the advertisement was misleading, because he believed that NTL’s service was only five times faster than standard dial-up internet for downloading, with upload speeds creaking along at a stately 150K.
In other words, it definitely wasn’t five times quicker a standard dial-up internet connection. No way, Jose.
Issue was also taken with the curious suggestion that emails would somehow be received “five times faster.”
NTL put up a valiant but ultimately doomed attempt to back up their claims when they were hauled in front of the ASA.
The telecoms giant insisted that it was standard industry practice to refer to the speed of broadband only in terms of download speed and, to back up their case, readily snitched on a host of competitors making similar claims.
The ASA were having none of it, pointing out that with consumers increasingly using the internet to upload digital content (e.g. photo files) they were “more likely to interpret the claim as meaning that all internet use (downloading and uploading) would be five times faster unless told otherwise.”
The ASA ruled that the advertising was misleading and that NTL should have made clear that its claim “5 times faster than standard 56K dial-up” was limited to download speed.
The Authority also found that the claim about the “five times faster” email was equally likely to mislead viewers.
Suitably chastised and ‘umbled, NTL have agreed to change the wording of future advertisements. They now have a “grace period” of three months from 8 June to ensure that their wording stays within the ASA guidelines.
NTL Broadband
ASA
8 June, 2005
TalkTalk Attacks BT Landline Market
There’s a big battle going on for your landline, with the Carphone Warehouse limbering up to get in some telling punches into BT’s sector dominance.
TalkTalk UK – Carphone’s fixed line subsidiary – is looking to snaffle ten per cent of the UK’s fixed line market within the next three years, after recording what they describe as an “outstanding year”.
The company has soared into profit in only its second year of operation, despite hefty investment and marketing costs, with more than 920,000 fixed line users generating revenues of £123.6m (~US$225m~€183m).
Heady on success, sharp suited TalkTalk execs have sent the flipcharts flapping and come up with an ambitious target of signing up two million residential consumers by March 2008 – that’s one in ten of the UK’s fixed line market.
TalkTalk also plans to simplify the process for customers paying their call charges and line rental on a single bill – or “terminating the billing relationship with BT” as they like to call it.
Chief exec Charles Dunstone was ready with a quote: “We are now well on the way to developing a broad-based telecoms group, providing mobile and fixed line services to individuals and businesses across ten countries.”
“We have now proved that TalkTalk has all the ingredients to become the major alternative force in UK residential communications, and further regulatory change over the next year should allow us to move to the next level in both scale and range of service.”
The parent company, Carphone Warehouse, have also released bumper figures, reporting a 33.8% rise in pre-tax profits to £102.1 million (~US$185m ~€151m) in the 12 months to the end of March, against £76.3 million (~US$138m ~€113m) for the same period a year ago.
Turnover hopped, skipped and jumped up 27% per cent to £2.35 billion, operating profit soared up 45% to £107 million (~US$195m ~€158m), with Carphone Warehouse signing up 6.5 million new customers to mobile and fixed-line telephone services during the period (21.6 per cent higher than new connections for the previous year).
Crucially, revenues from telecoms services were up 45% to £804 million (~US$1,462m ~€1,190m), with operating profit flying up 50% to £22.5 million (~US$41m ~€33m).
“Our year-to-date connections growth of 20 per cent is particularly encouraging, especially in the context of a weaker consumer environment in the UK,” purred Charles Dunstone. “We remain confident of the outlook,” he added, before announcing that he was selling his first tranche of 6 million shares, or 2 percent, in the company.
Talk Talk UK
Carphone Warehouse
7 June, 2005
Laptops Out Sell Desktops In US
Sales of laptops outstripped the number of desktop PCs for the first time ever, according to Current Analysis.
Based on monthly sales in the US, the survey by ‘competitive intelligence’ experts Current Analysis says that notebook sales accounted for 53 per cent of the total personal computer market last month, whizzing up from 46 percent during the same period last year.
The survey was based on sales from a sampling of electronics retailers in the US (so it’s more of an educated guess than a scientific study) but it does reflect the growing mobility of consumers.
The report concluded that demand has been driven by falling laptop prices and increased performance, with Sam Bhavnani, senior analyst for Current Analysis adding, “Just a few years ago, the performance of notebooks was nowhere near where it is today.”
Once back-breaking beasts with a battery life measured in nano-seconds – and a price tag to make grown men weep – modern laptops are now faster, slimmer, more capable and, crucially, cheaper (laptop prices have fallen 17 per cent against a smaller 4 per cent fall for desktops).
It seems that computing consumers like to feel connected too, with 95 percent of laptops offering wireless connectivity – up from 80 percent last year.
“There used to be a time when people expected a reply to an e-mail within a couple of days. Now they expect a response within 24 hours. People want to stay connected wherever they are,” insisted Bhavnani.
Bhavnani predicts that notebooks will continue to devour bigger shares of the PC market, while sagely adding, “You’re not going to see the desktop go away, though.”
His barely-revelatory statement was backed up an announcement from Mike George, VP of consumer business for Dell US, who today revelaed that Dell will be launching a “luxury” range of computers, with their hoity-toity desktop and notebooks selling for between $1,200 (~£660, €979) and $3,500 (~£1,925, €2,855).
In the US, Toshiba rule the laptop roost, enjoying a hefty 26 percent of the market (according to NPD Group/NPD Techworld), followed by Hewlett Packard, with 21 percent; IBM, with 17 percent; Compaq, with 11 percent, and Sony, with 7 percent.
Current Analysis
6 June, 2005
EU To Unify Wireless And Broadcast Rules
The European Commission has announced plans to create a single set of European Union rules on broadcasting and the wireless spectrum.
The proposals are aimed at easing restrictions on advertising and encouraging Internet and mobile phone media to do their thang. The proposals will also allow telecommunications companies to trade their expensive third generation mobile licenses.
At the moment it’s a bit of a free for all in Europe, with each country free to set its own broadcasting rules. The fact that the last EU guidelines were penned way back in 1989 – before mobile telephones and the Internet hit the mainstream – has added to the confusion.
“It would be unfair if traditional broadcasting were to be regulated very heavily, and new broadcasters on mobile phones and the Internet were subject to no rules,” observed Commission spokesman Martin Selmayr.
The new proposals form part of a five-year strategy to turbo-charge the European digital economy, although they’ll still have to circumnavigate acres of EU red tape, with all changes needing to be formally proposed and approved by the European Parliament and national governments.
The main thrust of the proposal by the Commission involves loosening advertising rules for traditional TV broadcasters, letting them foist more than the current advertising limit of 20% a day on hapless viewers.
The proposal will also see the end of enforced ‘ceilings’ on commercial breaks.
“These rules should be more flexible. It should be up to the programmer to decide when to interrupt a football match or a soap opera,” said Selmayr.
Currently, Internet and mobile phone broadcasters are compelled to respect diverging national rules, which could cover anything from security to anti-racist legislation. The new proposals would mean that they would only have to comply with their own country’s domestic broadcasting rules.
Europe is also looking to free up the highly lucrative wireless spectrum – currently worth something like €9 billion (~US$11bn ~£6bn) a year – and hopes that digital frequencies used by services such as mobile phone operators, police radar and radio will be brought under centralised EU control by the end of 2005.
“Such a policy is required if we want to make efficient and cross-border use of this very valuable economic resource,” insisted Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said.
EU officials have stated that by centralising control of the use and trading of spectrum and frequencies, the trading of third-generation mobile licenses could be sped up.
Most national regulators have made 3G license trading verboten, with many telecoms companies being forced to take on an almighty pile of debt to buy the licenses.
The proposals were welcomed by ETNO, a lobby group for Europe’s telecommunications networks operators, while adding that “one of the main challenges of the initiative will be to develop a set of policies that continue to foster competition whilst at the same time creating incentives to innovate.”
European Commission
i2010 – A European Information Society for growth and employment
2 June, 2005
8Meg Bulldog DSL Goes UK Wide
Bulldog Communications, the Internet and telecom group owned by Cable & Wireless, is rolling up its sleeves and shouting “Oy! Let’s be ‘aving you!” at its rivals as it doubles the speed of its broadband offering to a super-swifty 8 megabits-per-second from 4 megabits, and spread it across the UK.
With its local loop unbundling (LLU) cutting BT out of the loop, Bulldog can offer highly competitive prices, letting subscribers get broadband at speeds of up to 8 meg.
Prices start at £15.50 (~US$28 ~€22) for eight hours online a month with their ‘Start@ctive’ package.
The unlimited ‘Inter@ctive’ 8 meg product costs £29.50 (~US$53 ~€42) a month, with the ‘Super@ctive’ package bundling in free unlimited local and national calls for £41.50/month (~US$75 ~€60).
It should be noted, however, that punters have to install Bulldog’s telephone service to enjoy the @ctive prices.
Like a crack dealer giving out free samples, Bulldog is offering the first month’s broadband service for just one pound in the hope that customers will get addicted to their high speed service.
A bullish Bulldog CEO Emanuele Angelidis insisted that the launch of the 8 meg service showed how the LLU operator was “redefining the boundaries of the broadband market”.
“Eight meg from Bulldog, with no download caps, gives customers the freedom to use the Internet as they wish,” he growled before retiring to his executive kennel.
Elsewhere, a spokesman for BT could be heard conceding that Bulldog’s pricing was “an interesting proposition … and a sign of a very healthy broadband market”.
Although competition in this sector is white hot, BT remains the King Dong of the UK telecoms market, although it is yet to announce anything as fast as an 8 megabit broadband service.
Currently, entry level broadband products tend to offer miserly speeds of around 256Kbps, although pricing pressure has seen major players such as BT, Tiscali, AOL and Wanadoo offering 1Mbps or 2Mbps broadband deals for around £14.99 (~US$27, ~€22) to £29.99 (~US$54, ~€44) per month.
C&W have been embarking on a broadband spending spree recently, announcing last week that it was doubling its investment in LLU to provide broadband coverage to 800 telephone exchanges – adding up to around 30 percent of homes and businesses across the UK.
Bulldog Broadband
1 June, 2005
Men Remain Moguls Of The Mobile:Cingular Wireless
A survey by Cingular Wireless has revealed that men spend more time yakking on mobiles than women.
For the fifth year on the trot, the annual survey has men coming out on top of the blabber’s league, with the fellas talking 35 percent more on their wireless phones than women – more than double the 16 percent lead men held in 2004.
“The results are undisputable, and after five consecutive years, men are definitely the top wireless talkers,” said Jennifer Bowcock, Director of Consumer Media Relations, Cingular Wireless.
It may seem at odds with the experience of some blokes, but the survey concluded that men communicate, grunt, leer, mumble or beerily chortle down their phones for an average of 571 minutes a month, compared to an average of 424 wireless minutes a month for women.
Traditionally, the home phone has been the favoured instrument of choice for women keen to sit down with a cup of tea and hog the phone forever, and this is reflected by the study which shows that women natter for 491 minutes each month against the 321 minutes per month for men.
The gap is narrowing though, down from 62 percent in 2004 to 53 percent in 2005.
Even when it comes to the traditional male domain of gadget owning, women still lead the way, with 25 percent of women owning a camera-capable cell phone in 2005, against only 21 percent of men.
Women aren’t afraid to get snapping either, with 60 percent using their camera feature frequently or occasionally against 40 percent of men using it as often.
The survey also discovered that men and women use wireless phones for different purposes, with 82 percent of the lay-dees using their phones to talk to family and friends, while only 62 percent of blokes use their phones for that purpose.
However, figures revealed that men spend twice as much time using their cell phones for business than women.
The survey concluded that convenience still remains the numero uno reason for both sexes using their mobile phones, with 62 percent indicating they primarily use their wireless phones for convenience purposes. Safety comes in second at 19 percent.
Cingular Wireless
1 June, 2005
Broadband Beats Dial-Up In The UK
Research from BT shows that the number of users connecting to the Internet via broadband has overtaken dial-up subscriptions for the first time, with 7.4 million broadband customers (including cable) now online.
The figures, released by the BT Group, reveal that it has taken just over three years for broadband connections to overtake dial-up, with millions bidding farewell to “KKKKK-ER-ZRRRR-WEEIR!” modem dial up sounds for the silent, swift appeal of always-on broadband.
The speed of uptake has been accelerated by the intense competition from a host of high-speed Internet service providers, all offering customer-tempting speedier connections and services at ever-falling prices.
Initially, broadband availability was geographically limited, but according to Ben Verwaayen, the chief executive of BT, connections are now available to 99.6 per cent of the UK population, “equivalent to the proportion with running water.”
Businesses have been quick to take advantage of broadband’s ability to handle significantly more data than dial-up, with always-on connectivity delivering commercial advantages in the global markets.
High speed connections are also good news to those selling goods and services online, with an explosive growth in the consumer market for buying media online, such as films, music and television.
Mr Verwaayen said: “I know people’s memories are short but I don’t think that anybody three years ago had even the faintest hope this would happen. I remember when I came into BT [April 2002] it was not in anyone’s imagination.”
Cash is still rolling into broadband investment, with Cable & Wireless announcing last week that it would be shelling out another £70m (~US$127m ~€m)to expand its Bulldog broadband brand.
Bulldog is currently handling 14,000 customer orders a month after launching last year at a cost of £41m (~US$74m, ~€103m).
BT remains the Big Cheese of the broadband world in the UK, boasting 1.7 million broadband subscribers of its own, with its network supplying a further 3.7 million broadband connections for other Internet service providers.
Two million cable customers now enjoy broadband connectivity through NTL and Telewest.
Mr Verwaayen wrapped things up: “We have to take the internet out of the domain of the geek and into the normal world. That’s the journey we are on. After that you can increase the multiplier effect of broadband in the economy. “It’s great to have overtaken dial-up, that’s another step, but it’s still in its early days.”
BT Group
Bulldog Broadband
31 May, 2005
Log On Through The Lord
Cardiff vicar Reverend Kimber is hoping that by introducing wireless broadband access from the pews of his city centre church, more people will be encouraged to join his flock at St John’s Church.
The decision was made after the tech-savvy Reverend discovered that the thick walls of the 1473 church blocked his own wireless signal as he used his laptop to write sermons and create orders of service.
The Welsh capital is awash with Wi-Fi after a joint project between Cardiff council and BT Openzone resulted in more than 100 wireless broadband points being created around Cardiff city centre and parts of Cardiff Bay.
With the streets full of wired Welsh business folks looking for a fix, Kimber realised that they might appreciate a quieter place to do business.
“The church is a sanctuary for everyone, including business people with laptops and mobiles who may want to find a quiet area without lots of noise and loud music to sit in peace and do some work or just send an e-mail,” Kimber told the BBC.
The laptop-toting vicar added, “I couldn’t do my job without one and it has made me more aware of other people’s needs.”
After Kimber approached BT, the company agreed to fill in the gap in Cardiff’s wireless broadband network and fitted the church with its own Openzone node, providing access to surfers sitting in the corner of the north aisle at St John’s.
Hopeful to convert Skype surfers into Bible-troublers, the Rev Kimber said: “This church has a strong commitment to be open for people in the city, and of course, if this will encourage more new people into the church, the project will have been a success.
Fearful of mass sessions of multiplayer shoot-em-ups and virtual battles breaking out in the aisles, Kimber added, “All we ask is that they respect the church environment and do not to use loud mobile ring tones or play music on their computers, especially when a service is in progress.”
It wouldn’t be the first time the church has seen battle – the original medieval church was severely damaged during the revolt of Owain Glyndwr in the early 15th century.
According to Ann Beynon, BT’s director Wales, when it comes to wireless connectivity, Cardiff is now one of the most connected in the UK.
St John’s church, Cardiff
Wireless broadband goes to church
31 May, 2005
Training Foundation Launches National Online Learning Initiative
The Training Foundation has launched its Ready for Work online training programme, an employment-awareness course free to all young people in (or recently in) full-time education and those in modern apprenticeships.
Warmly welcomed by leading education and industy-based bodies such as HTI, Confederation of British Industry and the British Chambers of Commerce, the scheme is aimed at ensuring that fresh-faced young ‘uns arriving at the workplace know how to become responsible employees.
The Ready for Work program will give young workers an idea of what employers might expect of them as they start out on their working lives and, is it hoped, make the transition to employment a more pleasurable experience (I’m still waiting for that bit to happen).
The training programme consists of 12 online courses designed to raise awareness on employment issues of major concern to today’s employers.
The “interactive and engaging” programme covers subjects such as “showing respect at work, embracing diversity, being enterprising, managing workplace stress, health & safety, following drugs & alcohol policies, sensible email and Internet use, data protection and being a responsible employee.”
Each self study course ends with a short test to check the learner’s understanding, with an 80% or better grade qualifying the student for an optional Ready for Work Certificate and Ready for Work Handbook.
Certificates are awarded by ABC (Awarding Body Consortium), a leading UK awarding body with full Qualifications Curriculum Authority (QCA) recognition.
In April 2005, The Training Foundation became the first ever training organisation to be awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise – Innovation, and its new scheme has had industry bigwogs falling over themselves to lavish praise on the initiative.
Sir Richard Branson was first in the queue; “We need our young people, on which the Country’s future prosperity depends, to be equipped with an appreciation of business, so that they can set out with a spirit of enterprise. I welcome the Ready for Work programme. Co-operation between employers and educators on initiatives like this can do nothing but good.”
Sir Digby Jones, Director General of the CBI wanted to hug the Ready for Work program and take it home: “We need more employable young people understanding the world of work, trained in the most relevant areas and able to add value to their employer. The Ready for Work programme will help to bridge this gap.”
David Frost, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce roared his approval: “We need initiatives such as Ready for Work, which can help to ensure that young people leaving full-time education and training are equipped with skills that are both relevant for the workplace and will help advance their careers.”
Roger Opie, HTI Trust Director, also sprinkled the scheme with love: “The partnership between business and education is critical in raising the employability stakes for young people. An understanding of the skills and behaviours required in the workplace is a shared responsibility. This free programme provides both the content and motivation to complement existing initiatives.”
The course is accessible over the Internet at The Training Foundation’s online learning portal www.readyforwork.org.
31 May, 2005
IBM, Oracle Battle For Database Market: Gartner
The insatiable appetite of hungry surfers desperate for more information, analysis and intelligence has fuelled a database market growth of 10.3 percent in 2004, according to research released by the Gartner Group.
On an oily mat somewhere in Business Land, IBM and Oracle are manfully wrestling with each other to control the lucrative relational database market.
Although IBM still holds the crown – hanging on to their slim market lead of 34.1 percent of the overall market – Oracle are laying in some mean moves, maintaining 33.7 percent and enjoying a sizeable boost from Linux.
“Oracle saw strong growth of nearly 15 per cent, much of it coming from its performance on the Linux platform,” Gartner said.
“The difference between the giants in terms of revenue was only US$30m (~£16.5), making it too tight to declare a clear winner.”
Lagging a fair way behind is Microsoft, with 20 percent of the market, followed by NCR Teradata at 2.9 percent, Sybase at 2.3 percent and all the others collectively totaling 6.6 percent.
It’s a lucrative market, growing from just under US$7.1 billion in 2003 to nearly US$7.8 billion in terms of new licence sales, although the continuing wobbliness of the US dollar may have artificially inflated market growth by some 3 to 4 percent of overall growth.
“[Overall market growth] was probably somewhere between 6 and 7 percent,” observed Gartner Inc.’s Colleen Graham, who authored the report, noting that sales outside of the United States, when converted to US dollars, added more to vendor revenue because of currency conversion, and weren’t necessarily reflecting increased demand.
In terms of overall growth, Microsoft and Teradata both led the field with 18 percent and 17 percent, respectively.
Despite being a still a relatively small part of the overall RDBMS market, the Linux segment is as hot as an extra spicy vindaloo, registering 118 percent growth in 2004, more than doubling from US$300 million in 2003 to over US$650 million in 2004.
Gartner found that Oracle is putting some distance between its rival IBM in this subsection of the market, with a growth of 155 percent.
Oracle now controls 80.5 percent of the Linux RDBMS market, up from 69 percent a year ago, while IBM slumped to 16.5 percent of the market share, compared 28.4 percent the previous year.
Linux RDBMS new license revenue grew 118.4 per cent to US$654.8m, with Oracle taking up for 80.5 per cent of that business.
In terms of growth of sales, Linux performed better in RDBMS than Windows. The platform grew 10 per cent to US$3.1bn in 2004, although Microsoft hogs a hefty 50.9 per cent of business, up from 47.4 percent in 2003.
Microsoft’s Tom Rizzo, director of product management for SQL Server, made funny faces while deriding the growth of the Linux database, chortling: “Look at it: It’s a small market. You’d expect some growth there, from such a small base.”
With chest set to ‘maximum puff’, Rizzo reminded anyone within earshot of healthy growth in the Windows database market, citing the figures as evidence that Windows is “eating away at the Linux camp” rather than the other way around.
The RDBMS market on the Windows server platform grew 10 percent in 2004. Microsoft’s market share grew 18 percent in this segment.
IBM, Oracle Race for Database Market Dominance
26 May, 2005