Be Broadband didn’t waste time in announcing their response to Virgin Media’s 50 Mb/s ultra-fast broadband service launch. 

Be announced initial results of their limited trial of a 48 MB/s service in Paddington West London just before Christmas – ahead of the full announcement early this year (2009).  The results indicated the trial delivered actual speeds of between 30Mb/s to 45Mb/s, which is significantly faster than anything else available via a DSL broadband connection, but unlikely to match the average speeds available from the new Virgin Media broadband 50 Mb/s service.

Felix Geyr, Be Broadband’s Managing Director said “We want to push the limits of high-speed broadband”.  “We already offer the fastest possible broadband on an ADSL line, but we want to take it a step further. If you want broadband around the 50Mb mark but don’t want to go the cable route, Be wants to offer you a real alternative.”

This makes sense as the Virgin Media service will only be available to a maximum of 12 million homes in the UK by June 2009.

But comment on forums such as Digital Spy, have not been universally positive, even though Be Broadband is a very popular provider that tends to enjoy very positive feedback in the forums.

The trial involved the “bonding” of two phone lines into the home, in order to effectively double the speed available from the standard Be Broadband 24 Meg service.  This clearly requires the install of two phone lines into the home (with BT charging up to £125 to install a line) and payment of line rental twice – so a minimum of £20 per month just for the line rental. 

The forum comment therefore focuses around the practicality (both in terms of cost and reliability of service) of this type of bonded line solution. 

In essence ADSL 2+ technology will always struggle to match the inherent advantages of Virgin Media’s FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) technology, when it comes to delivering ultra-fast broadband services and the Be Broadband 48 Mb/s service looks to be an example of this. 

Want to find out more? Give us a call on 0800 1388 388 or use our online smart search at www.simplifydigital.co.uk

Written by lee

As with most things technological, it’s sad to say it, but the UK lags the best in the world.  Recent research by the BBC shows that the average broadband speed in the UK is just 3.5 Mb/s.  Some commentators have decreed this to be more than adequate and it reflects the dominance of the DSL broadband delivery technology in the UK.

But there were many commentators who said that three channels on the TV were more than adequate.  But it’s just not the way the world works - so sure as three became three hundred in the UK TV channel market – the same will be true with broadband speeds.

And Japan is leading the way.  The Land of the Rising Sun is way out in front when it comes to broadband service delivery, making the UK look positively antiquated. 

In Japan over 40% of residential broadband connections are via fibre to the home (FTTH) allowing for broadband speeds of many hundreds of Mbs/sec.  As a result the Japanese cable company KDDI for example, has just launched a fibre-optic broadband and telephony package with upload and download speeds each of up to one gigabit per second, (that’s 1000 Mb/sec!) and this is in a country where speeds of up to 100 mb/sec are the norm.  What’s more the KDDI service (with a free phone line) costs only about £30 per month.

So whilst Virgin Media is to be applauded to have invested in its less expensive FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) service (which relies on copper for the last yards into the home), the up to 50 Mb/sec speeds offered for nearly £50 per month, don’t seem all that sexy – though faster than all the other broadband providers in the UK.

And this is the key – the price of broadband per Mb/sec, as received by the customer.  Data is hard to come by, but the most recent available suggests that Japan leads the world by this measure, offering broadband access at an average price of $0.7 per Mb/s.  The UK consumer is charged about seven and a half times that rate.

So when will things improve for the UK broadband consumer?   Well it’s not just Virgin Media who are investing in improving the broadband infrastructure.  BT also has earmarked a £1.5bn investment project to improve its DSL network and roll out FTTC services.  This could eventually see 40% of the country enjoying speeds of up to 60Mbps.  But don’t hold your breath - there is still a lot of discussion underway as to the cost of the investment and the ability of BT to recoup their investment by selling on the capacity to other broadband providers at fair rates.  

And even if the investment does come it is still very unlikely to provide FTTH services (that the Japanese all but take for granted) to more than a few lucky new-build households.  This in large part reflects the nature of the UK housing stock, which is far lower density than many other countries in the world, making the cost of installing FTTH services extremely expensive.

UK broadband - slow compared to Japan

Joeri Van Bogert, the outspoken President of the Fibre to the Home Council of Europe believes that only the ultra-fast, two-way speed of fibre to the home will really deliver on consumers’ future expectations.

Speaking to the BBC Mr Van Bogert said earlier this week “A lot of DSL and cable modem services can be complementary to Fibre to the Home (FTTH) but they are in no way a substitute for it”. 

He cites the importance of upload speeds as well as download speeds (a key constraint with DSL and FTTC technologies), as so much “web 2.0” activity involves sharing data with other users on the internet.

“Just take something simple, like photos. Increasingly, people want to upload them to share with friends and have them stored somewhere secure,” said Mr Van Bogaert. “FTTH is much more than a technology, it has the power to change the way we live, work and communicate,” he continued.

And therein lies the key, there are two fundamental trends that will inevitably lead to an ever increasing appetite for broadband speed:

·         The first is the so-called “web 2.0” phenomenon – the fact that so much of the power of the web in the future will be connecting users to each other (to share and interact) – rather than binary connections to individual websites. Such connections require high speed upload and download capability;

·         and the second is that the web is ultimately a visual medium, so video content will continue to augment the written word in almost every activity online – and with it, bring an inexorable appetite for increased speeds and usage limits.

Written by chris

Point Topic the international research company, released their latest worldwide broadband statistics in December 2008 and they make for interesting reading.  The UK rankings are respectable rather than stellar.

Overall by Q3 2008 there were approximately 400 million broadband subscribers worldwide, up by approximately 16 million subscriptions on the previous quarter.

Western Europe has the largest share of broadband subscribers with 26% of the total, followed by South and East Asia at 23% and North America with 22%.

In terms of broadband penetration (as a % of total population), North America leads with 27% penetration, followed by Western Europe on 26% and Asia Pacific on 10%, but predictably growth rates in less well penetrated markets were far higher.   Western Europe’s broadband growth rate over the period was 2.7%, whilst Latin America for example grew at 8.3%.

By far the largest absolute volume of new broadband subscribers was acquired in South and East Asia, with over 5 million broadband subscribers added in China in the third quarter of 2008 alone which accounted for one third of the total volume of broadband subscribers added globally and almost twice the number added throughout Western Europe over the same time period.

 Within Western Europe 2.7million new subscribers were added, of which over 800,000 were added in Germany; 428,000 in France and 320,000 in the UK.  The 320,000 new broadband subscriptions added in the UK ranked ninth in volume terms worldwide, with Brazil, Mexico, Russia and India all adding more broadband subscribers than the UK, in addition to China, USA, Germany and France.

DSL technologies are by far the most common method of receiving broadband worldwide, accounting for 65% of total worldwide connections.  This is followed by cable modems accounting for 21% of connections; and fibre to the home or the cabinet (FFTx) accounting for just over 12%.

The Western European   market is especially dominated by DSL with a total of 86 million connections, of which 21 million are in Germany, 16 million in France and 13.4 million in the UK.  All three are dwarfed by China which has a staggering 62 million DSL subscribers.

The sheer size of China’s market means that it is now in volume terms the largest broadband market in the world with 80.9 million broadband subscribers, having overtaken the USA (79 million subscribers) in Q3 2008.  The UK is back in 6^th place by volume, after Japan, Germany and France.

There are some interesting differences in the technologies adopted that will profoundly affect each country’s ability to provide ultra-fast broadband connections in future.  DSL connections tend to limit available speeds to approx 40 Mb/sec; whilst “fibre to the cabinet” can offer speeds of nearly 200 Mb/sec; and “fibre to the home” of over 1,000 Mb/sec.  These all can be compared to the UK average broadband speed of approx 3.5 Mb/s.

In Japan for example nearly 60% of their 29 million broadband connections are via FFTx resulting in an average broadband speed of over 90 Mb/sec.  This is in contrast to the UK where nearly 80% of broadband connections are via DSL.  This makes Virgin Media’s decision to invest in FTTC (fibre to the cabinet) broadband services in the UK very timely.  The new service which launched at the end of 2008 offers speeds of up to 50Mb/sec.

Written by chris

Today Virgin Media announced a new super-fast (XXL) broadband and our CEO Charlie Ponsonby was on BBC Breakfast first thing (see above) sharing his thoughts on it. Here’s a quick summary of his comments along with some background information from us:

“ Seeing really will be believing and we predict the difference will be remarkable. Even standard web surfing will seem a very different experience – with pages loading instantaneously - but the real difference will jump out when you try more data intensive online activities such as streaming high definition TV content, and of course online gaming.”

Virgin Media formally announced the launch of their revolutionary up to 50Mb/s ultra fast broadband service today. The service is over double the speed of the next fastest high speed broadband service available in the UK from Be Broadband and nearly 20 times faster than the average broadband speed achieved by UK households!

Virgin Media have been preparing for the launch for many months having successfully trialed the service in Kent earlier this year. The service uses the existing Virgin Media cable infrastructure (with some modifications) and requires the install of an upgraded broadband modem in the customer’s home.

The launch of the 50 Mb/s service in the UK, follows the trend elsewhere in the world, where fibre-optic cable broadband providers are starting to put clear blue water between themselves and their DSL competitors (who rely on the copper phone line network), by providing broadband speeds that the DSL competitors struggle to match without huge investment in the copper wire network infrastructure.

Kabel Deutschland, Germany’s largest cable operator is a great example – they use a sophisticated fibre-optic cable infrastructure and have successfully tested speeds of over 200 Mb/s. They have taken a conscious decision to aggressively market ultra fast broadband packages offering greater speeds than their DSL competitors, such as a 32 Mb/s service with phone for about £20 per month.

It seems that Virgin Media are adopting a similar strategy in the UK – that of shifting households’ expectations, such that any broadband speed under 20 or 30 Mb/s start to seem second rate. When you consider how quickly users’ expectations are already shifting as regards acceptable broadband speed, this seems a very plausible strategy. Remember that it is not all that long ago when households were perfectly happy with a 56 Kbit/s connection (which is 45 times slower than the average broadband speed now achieved in the UK).

Virgin Media do not have a completely free run at the world of ultra fast broadband in the UK. BT are still formally committed to their delayed “21CN upgrade” and continue to pilot its own fibre optic network – so called “fibre to the cabinet” which can deliver speeds of up to 40Mb/s; and the far more capital intensive “fibre to the home” which can deliver speeds of up to 100Mb/s and beyond. But BT’s plans are a long way from fruition and arguments are still raging as to how their investment will be paid for by on-sale to third party broadband providers.

“2009 will be a very interesting year for the UK broadband market, the launch of ultra fast broadband will really start to change people’s perceptions as to what is an acceptable broadband speed.”

“Indeed as we see an increasing blur between the TV set and the PC, with on-demand content flowing seamlessly between the two, people’s appetite for broadband speed will head rapidly upwards and today’s average of about 2 Mb/s will soon seem as inadequate as a 56 Kbit/s dialup connection already seems to the great majority of web users.”

“The market may well start to diverge in 2009 – with premium ultra fast broadband services commanding higher prices and margins for those able to deliver them, and the opposite end of the broadband market becoming yet more commoditised, with further downward pressure on prices”

When can you get the 50 Mb/s service?

To receive Virgin Media’s fibre optic broadband service you need to live in a Virgin Media cable area. Currently Virgin Media covers approx 12 million UK homes. But the new ultra fast broadband service will not initially be available to all Virgin media customers – indeed it will roll out region by region over the coming months, with Warrington in Cheshire the first up. Warrington was chosen to go first due to the very high proportion of existing Virgin Media high speed broadband customers.

Following the Warrington rollout, the “XXL” Virgin Broadband package will be gradually added to the firm’s 2Mb/s (”M”), 10Mb/s (”L”) and 20Mb/s (”XL”) offerings across the whole cable network.

Remember you can head on over to the Simplifydigital site to find the best broadband package and further information on the Virgin XXL broadband, using our Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Jonathan

We’re getting lots of questions about the best broadband for gaming right now, so we thought we’d share our top tips on selecting the best broadband package to make sure your gaming experience is a Christmas cracker and not an over-cooked Turkey. (boo-da-boom, tish!).  

And remember, if you want any straight talking advice on the phone then call us on 0800 988 8148 or head on over to our broadband comparison tool here. 

What sort of speed do you need?

The speed of the service is obviously one of the most important things to consider when looking at broadband for online gaming.This can make all the difference as the overall game performance is largely dependent upon the speed of your connection.  The faster your connection, the lower your latency/ping (connection to the game server), allowing your movement to be fast enough to interact with those of other players. And to stop you feeling all sad and slow. 

To check the speed that you should be able to achieve at your postcode, just enter your details into our broadband comparison tool (or give us a call on 0800 988 8148) and look at the ‘full availability results’ found at the top of the results page. If your predicted speed is less than 2mb,  it’s questionable whether you will be able to achieve the desired connection to the game server to play properly. Ideally speeds of 4mb and above will be ideal for online gaming, especially if you’re using one of the newer high powered consoles such as a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. If services such as 02 Broadband, Be Broadband, Sky Broadband Max and Virgin Media Broadband are available in your area, you are much more likely to reach and exceed the desired speed requirements as these providers use new technology such as ADSL 2+ and fibre optic broadband which can often double your predicted speed.

What usage allowance do you need?

The other thing to make sure you have covered is your usage allowance. All broadband packages are sold with a usage/download allowance and when it comes to online gaming the higher the allowance, the better. Many games require regular updates which can sometimes be as big as 1GB or more. This alone can end up using a large part of your overall usage allowance, leaving you with an allowance amount that may not be sufficient enough to last your own or your family’s needs for the rest of the month (which could result in an additional fee from your ISP).  

When choosing a broadband provider aim for a package that offers at least 20+ GB per month usage, or even better something that offers “unlimited usage”.  However, it’s important to remember that “unlimited usage” broadband often do actually cap your usage with so called “fair usage policy”. It’s worth checking out the details of this before signing up. A notable exception to this is Sky Broadband.

Which console are you playing games on?

There are now many different gaming platforms that can be connected to a broadband connection for online gaming, the most popular being PC, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3. Most new broadband compatible games consoles and laptops come wireless enabled as standard. The Xbox 360 however does require a wireless adapter if you want to connect that way. For all types of online gaming, be it via a console, PC or laptop we’d always recommend hard wiring your connection (plugging directly into the broadband router) with an Ethernet cable if at all possible. This will help to ensure that you keep as strong a connection as possible to the internet and avoid losing signal strength across a wireless distance. This will also help reduce any in-game lag (causing the game to slow down and sometimes drop your connection to the game server altogether) and offer an overall smoother gaming experience.

Written by Jonathan

We recently put out a press release announcing our pick of the very best digital TV, broadband and home phone deals, just in time for Christmas. Here it is in its full blown glory, with our top tips up front and the tables at the end.  It’s packed full of stuff, so this time round we’ve decided to include the whole press release. 

And remember, we’re here to help. Just give us a call on 0800 988 8148 or head on over to the main Simplifydigital site and see what the best package is for you.

- - - 

Make the most of digital TV, broadband and home phone deals this Christmas with Santa’s Little Helper, Simplifydigital

With Christmas just around the corner, time is running out to find the best digital package for your family. There are over 15,000 different digital package deals on the market, catering for every conceivable taste. If you choose wisely, there are some great deals to be had on your digital services this festive season.

However, with last minute preparations, finding a new digital package is probably the last thing on your mind. That’s where Santa’s Little Helper, Simpifydigital, can help. It offers impartial advice via its UK-based experts over the phone (0800 1388 388) or online at http://www.simplifydigital.co.uk to help you find the best deal in minutes. Its specially designed website allows you to define your exact requirements and see the package options, which you can then order online, or let one of its experts place the order for you. It is the only retailer of digital TV, broadband and home phone services in the UK to be accredited by Ofcom as impartial.  The added advantage of Simplifydigital is that it has some exclusive deals and guarantee to be on hand to ensure that the installation goes smoothly.

Here are Simplifydigital’s top Christmas tips for digital TV, broadband and phone:

1.     Save by bundling your services. One of the best ways to take advantage of the great savings to be had is by buying your digital TV, broadband and home phone from one supplier. According to a recent T-poll survey, commissioned by Simplifydigital, an average family can save over £360 per year by bundling all three services.  So before subscribing to digital TV, it’s worth working out what you are paying for broadband and home phone services and whether you are in contract. Then when considering the different digital TV services, check out the deals offered to take all three services.

2.     Make the most of Christmas entertainment with a great movie package. There are many movie premieres such as Transformers, Shrek the Third and Stardust airing over the holidays so it’s a great time to invest in a movie package. Sky in particular has a great entertainment offering. Their movies package gives you more than 850 movies to choose from per month from Hollywood blockbusters to world-cinema gems. This will, however, add around £17 per month to your package but if you sign up before 25^th December, you’ll receive a £50 M&S voucher. If you don’t want to pay monthly for a movie package, both Sky and Virgin Media give you access to a huge range of Box Office movies for around £3.99 per film.

3.     Get cinema quality movies. If you are planning on having a movie-filled Christmas, you may also like to consider High Definition TV. HD TV gives you cinema quality movies in high definition and surround sound. For anyone who is serious about watching HD, Sky offers by far the largest selection of HD channels and programming in the UK, covering the whole spectrum of content – from all the premium sporting action, to a large range of movies and documentaries.  The Sky+HD box also has all the features of a Sky+ box so that you can pause and record live TV. It usually costs a bit extra though, and you’ll need to have an HD-ready set-top box and TV to watch it.

4.     Don’t miss those Christmas classics. If you don’t want to miss any festive TV, then a ‘PVR’ (personal video recorder) can be a great investment. This allows you to pause, record and rewind live TV and you can even record a whole series at the touch of a button. In the spirit of Christmas, there are also some great special offers available during the festive period. Via Simplifydigital, you can get a Sky+ box for £49 with free installation from Sky or a half-price V+ installation for £75 from Virgin Media. The V+ box also gives you access to BBC HD letting you view your favourite BBC programmes this Christmas in HD.

5.     Catch up with your friends and family for free. If you’re away from friends and family this Christmas and want to catch up on the phone, then certain providers will offer free calls to national and international telephone numbers. For example, depending on your package, TalkTalk offers free calls to 36 international destinations, Tiscali offer free calls to 10 international destinations and Sky to 20. Many packages also include free calls to mobile phones in the USA and Canada.

6.     If you’re buying games, make sure you’ve got the right broadband package. Make sure the kids (and adults) aren’t disappointed by ensuring that you’ve got the right broadband package to allow them to get stuck into a whole world of “online play” (multi-player) games. As a general guide, if you’re predicted speed is less than 2mb it is questionable whether you will be able to achieve the desired connection to the game server to play properly. Ideally speeds of 4mb and above will be ideal for online gaming, especially if you’re using one of the newer high powered consoles such as a Playstation 3 or Xbox 360.

Written by Jonathan

We’ve issued a press release today announcing the findings of our most recent piece of research - looking at people’s choice of home phone, broadband and digital TV providers, how long they’ve had them and some of the reasons behind people not benefiting from some of the best deals they could do.

We’re always looking for ways in which we can help people save money, so the reasons why people don’t switch and bundle their services are always really interesting to us. Here’s what we found out: 

> Cash strapped Britons are wasting £900 million by sticking to legacy deals on their digital TV, broadband and home phone services!

> Over half of you (59%) feel under pressure to save money on digital services due to the credit crunch.

> 1 in 3 people have not changed their home phone provider for over 5 years. 

> 1 in 4 of you are still buying all three services separately instead of saving £360 a year by bundling them together! That’s the equivalent of a return flight to New York or £30 a month to put back into the family budget. 

> Over 45% of consumers have not switched their broadband provider in the last 2 years and a third (33%) have not changed their home phone supplier for over five years.

> Nearly two out of three people (59%) feel under pressure to save money on digital services as a result of the credit crunch, and 63% have taken the trouble to research the market within the last 12 months, but only one in five (21%) have actually switched in the last year due to total confusion.

So why are people so confused and seemingly unable to switch and save?  Well just under 50% of people say that the reason that they have not switched is as a result of a combination of confusion as a result of too many conflicting deals available (19%), fear of the sheer time and effort required to switch (14%); and a lack of impartial advice as to where the best deals are to be found (13%).

As Charlie (our CEO) puts it, “This is where Simplifydigital can really help, it is the only company in the UK to be accredited by the regulator Ofcom to provide a completely free and impartial advisory service to help people save money on their digital TV, broadband and home phone services.”  

Enough said. Get in touch on 0800 988 8148 or head on over to the special triple-play section of our site here to find out how to help us help you make that £900 million figure smaller next time. 

PS: The full press release is available over here - we’d be interested to hear what you think of the results and the juicy bits that we’ve highlighted.

Written by Jonathan

TalkTalk has today announced a new package that offers people the chance to experience superfast broadband. Called myTalkTalk, the basic monthly price at launch is £6.49, with a series of add-ons for £4 including a speed boost of 24Mbps. That’s pretty quick, especially if you’re used to less than 1Mbps which a lot of people are. In addition to the potential for a good old speed boost, you can also double your download limit from 40Gb to 80Gb. 

There’s more too. TalkTalk estimate that only 10-15% of you will be able to get up to speeds approaching 24Mbps, so it’s offering a test upfront for you to check what you’d be getting and a refund if you’re not happy. We think this is a really good thing to do as we’re up for total transparency and super happy customers that get what they wanted in the first place. 

So, what are you waiting for? Don’t just sit there and plod on with your current broadband package. Give us a call on 0800 988 8148 or head on over to the main Simplifydigital site and see what the best package is for you.

Written by Jonathan

We want to let more people know about what Simplifydigital does and how it can help you get the very best deal when it comes to choosing your digital TV, broadband and home phone packages. Up until now this blog has been used mainly to share the latest news from us, along with other useful guides, tips and tidbits to help make finding the very best package and keeping up to speed on the latest deals as easy as possible. Now, we want to up the ante a bit and start using the blog as much more of a conversation platform, a way to talk directly with you, share some of the good stuff people say about us, find out more about what you’re looking for in a service like us and ultimately give us a home on the web that we can link back to and share more useful things with you. So, do get involved and let us know how we’re doing. 

Our Smartsearch comparison tool is free and officially accredited by the industry watchdog Ofcom for providing impartial advice. Indeed, we’ve noted in the past that research has shown that consumers can save on average £160 a year (!) by bundling their services and Simplifydigital is here to offer free consultations with experts! We have a team here that really does know their stuff and you can call them right now (for free!) on 0800 1388 388 or if you prefer, just head on over to our Smartsearch comparison tool and see what package our clever little piece of technology recommends for you. You might be surprised, or just a little bit reassured. Either way, give it a go and let us know what you think. 

And to kick things off, here’s Jon Bentley giving us a big thumbs up on the Gadget Show this week as he went in search of the best broadband deal in Britain. It was a great piece, in fact so good our site went down for a few minutes after being hit by a wave of Gadget Show viewers eager to try us out! We also experimented a bit with Twitter that night (Follow us here) by following people that were watching the Gadget show or talking about broadband-related things and saying hi. This seemed to go down pretty well and one Twitterer John Hood loved it so much, he has since written very nice things about us on his blog, which all you Mac and/or Star Wars fans should check out. 

So, over the next few weeks, expect to hear a lot more from us as we ask you about your experiences and how we can help out. We’d like to get a conversation going and let even more people know about Simplifydigital because we (obviously!), and lots of other people (check out some of our reviews), think it’s pretty smart. Oh, did we mention that it’s free?

Written by Jonathan

LONDON - BSkyB has passed the 9m subscriber mark after it added more than 400,000 taking Sky + and a record number signing up to Sky+ HD service.

Sky has finished the quarter ended September 30 with 9,067,000 customers.

Sky+ HD subscribers grew by 93,000 to 591,000. The company credited growing awareness of HD and availability of content such as the Olympics for the growth, in addition to its price cut on the service by £99 to £150.

Sky’s broadband and telephony services attracted more sign-ups, with broadband now in 20% of Sky homes thanks to 164,000 new customers and telephony in 15% of Sky homes with 120,000 new customers.

Jeremy Darroch, chief executive of Sky, said: “This is a good set of results in a challenging environment. Over nine million customers now enjoy the best in entertainment through Sky and, in tougher times, we’re helping more people to save money on broadband and telephony as well.”

To find out how you can join the growing Sky family give one of our digital experts a call on 0800 1388 388 or click here to compare sky to other suppliers.

Written by chris