Nildram Preps LLU Network Launch.

Nildram is preparing to launch its LLU network, as part of their strategy to develop triple play services – voice, data and video. The ISP will be migrating around 15% of its customer base onto the new network: Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) will enable Nildram to offer small business customers super-fast broadband and enhanced services. Working with Openreach provides Nildram with the capability to manage the migration smoothly, with minimum disruption to customers. Nildram customers are being contacted prior to migration and advised of the timings and the process for migration.
"Openreach is delighted to be providing Nildram with the critical infrastructure it needs in order to meet increased customer demand," comments Steve Robertson, CEO of Openreach. "We have seen massive growth over the last year to more than 500,000 lines and this trend looks set to continue."
Maria Cappella, managing director of Nildram, says, "Migrating our customers to the LLU network will further strengthen Nildram’s position as a leading supplier of broadband. In particular, our small business customers will see the benefit of switching to LLU, with faster speeds and a higher quality of service becoming available."
Typically Nildram is part of Pipex and will most likely be migrating customers onto their LLU platform, which has so far managed to unbundle 43 exchanges (100 planned).

Mobile Broadband (3.5G) To Hit 300m.

The number of global 3.5G (HSDPA) mobile broadband subscribers will rocket from 2.5m today to 300m by 2011! Growth during 2006 is expected to be restrained by limited devices, said the Informa Telecoms & Media report:
"A lack of compelling devices and content led to delayed launches and slow take-up of WCDMA and EV-DO services, and early HSDPA and EV-DO Revision A services are expected to suffer from the very same problems," says Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media and co-author of the Future Mobile Broadband Strategic Report.
Saadi notes that most HSDPA services are launching with only PC cards and notebooks, although a number of early handsets are also arriving. "However it is striking that as of June no major vendor has unveiled plans for EV-DO Rev. A handsets, although data cards are on the way."
A lack of a wide range of compelling handsets will slow mass-market takeup of 3.5G mobile broadband services in 2006-07, but handsets will start to mature in 2008, leading to a sharp increase in 3.5G handset sales and subscribers in 2008-09. By 2011 85% of 3.5G devices sold will be handsets, and the remaining 15% will be notebooks and PC cards.
3.5G mobile broadband subscribers are defined as subscribers using services based on HSDPA, HSUPA, EV-DO Revision A or EV-DO Revision B.

ASA Upholds 3 TalkTalk Complaints.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has finally ruled on the complaints against Carphone Warehouse's "free broadband forever" promotion, which has seen three out of four complaints upheld:
145 people, including competitors British Telecom, Tiscali and ntl:Telewest, complained about the advertising. They said it was:
1. misleading to suggest that the broadband was free when it involved an 18-month contractual commitment to the Talk3 International (T3I) calls package; a connection charge of ?29.99; ongoing costs of ?9.99 per month plus line rental (?20.99 in total) and a disconnection fee of ?70;
2. also misleading to claim broadband was "free forever" and
3. not sufficiently clear from the advertising that the availability of broadband was dependent on being connected to a qualifying telephone exchange and that people not connected to such an exchange would have to pay a further ?10 per month for the broadband service.
4. The ASA also challenged whether it should have been made clear in the ads that a delay of around 10 weeks would apply before people would receive broadband.
Numbers 1, 2 and 3 were all UPHELD, while 4 escaped and was NOT UPHELD by the ASA.

Entanet Upgrades Network.

Business ISP Entanet has upgraded its national network to 1Gbps and re-opened a point-of-presence in Manchester, which hopes to provide a fast resilient infrastructure capable of handling even higher levels of Internet traffic:
The upgrade means that Entanet now provides even faster connectivity across 99% of the UK from six major datacentres in London as well as Birmingham, Wolverhampton (where it has 2 POPs), Cambridge and Manchester. It already operates a heavily redundant 10 Gigabit network across the six major London data centres and 1-10Gbps connections into key London and European exchanges including LONAP, LINX, AMSIX, NL-ix, DE-CIX and SFINX. In addition it has two large data floors at its Telford headquarters ideal for disaster recovery and diversity provision.
James Blessing, Entanet’s Chief Operations Officer said: “Each of these POPs has diverse connectivity to the Internet at 1Gbps and can provide any of Entanet’s MPLS based services as well as traditional high speed leased lines. This represents excellent news for our Partners and customers who are striving to achieve faster access throughout the UK.”
The upgrade comes as Entanet re-opens its Manchester POP in response to growing demand among customers in the North West for local access to its network. Commenting on the re-opening, Blessing said: “The Manchester POP means our customers benefit from local connection rather than national connection to London at higher cost, whilst also experiencing lower latency and higher bandwidth.”