Broadband Category

The first of the month means a new episode of your favourite TV and Tech Podcast. FrequencyCast Show 51 is a bumper edition, looking at the following topics:

• News Updates: New iPhone details leaked, 3D TV is here, HD news and HomePlug hassle.
• Focus: How the rushed-through Digital Economy Act affects you, TV, radio and the Internet
• Hands-on: We get to go outside and play with a few sets of walkie talkies
• Your comments and questions on catch-up TV, MP3 players, ITV 1 HD and more

You can download Show 51 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html.

If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.

Links:

• Show Notes
• Transcript: Focus on The Digital Future
• Transcript: Hands On With Walkie Talkies
• Become a Facebook Fan

We hope you enjoy this packed show. If you like what you’ve heard, please spread the word…

 FrequencyCast Show 51 - The Digital Future [30:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

BT has officially started offering their “up to 40 Megabit” high-speed broadband service, under the brand “BT Infinity”.

Initially, it’s only available to a few areas of the UK, but coverage will increase as BT continue to expand their fibre optic network. By the end of 2010, it’s estimated that around 4 million homes and businesses will be able to get faster broadband using BT Infinity.

The cost? Not bad, actually. There are two packages, one for £19.99 (with a 20 Gig monthly download limit) or £24.99 for the unlimited version. Infinity requires an engineer visit (up to 3 hours, according to BT). The installation is free, and customers will be provided with a BT Infinity Home Hub and a vDSL modem fibre optic modem.

BT’s clearly targeting the high-speed offering from Virgin, with BT’s basic package being £7.47 per month cheaper that Virgin Media XXL. BT’s also offering a faster upload speed of up to 10Mb/s (the fastest in the UK).

Want to find out if you could get up to 40 Meg broadband? Enter your details at the BT Infinity website.

Users of Tiscali’s broadband and phone service will find that from this Thursday, the 7th of January, they’ll have a new provider – TalkTalk.

In May last year, the Carphone Warehouse announced the acquisition of troubled Tiscali, and the user migration happens this week. However, some users may find that they’re in for a shock. Customers on a broadband-only tariff with Tiscali, may find that unless they’re prepared to sign up to TalkTalk’s phone service, their monthly bill will go from £14.99 a month to £19.99 a month.

Luckily, there are some better deals out there, and switching broadband providers is now pretty easy.

Vak=lue provider Plusnet is offering three months of free broadband to Tiscali customers who switch to their service before the 31st of January 2010. No connection charge and you get a free wifi router. To take advantage of this offer, go to the Plusnet Offers Page and when you get to the payment screen, use the special promotion code tiscalisave.

Alternatively, there’s BE Broadband’s basic service for £7.50 a month. Full details on Be Broadband‘s site.

Got any thoughts on the takeover? Happy to switch to TalkTalk, or are you looking for alternatives? Add a comment here and we may read it out in the next show.

Tomorrow sees the start of the 2009/2010 English Premier League footy season. In case you’re not kitted out with Sky, Virgin, or any other digital services offering sporting coverage, you can still watch tomorrow’s matches, coutesy of an online service from Sky:

Everton vs Arsenal (EPSN) and Chelsea vs Hull (Sky Sports) are both available from skyplayer.sky.com – free to some Sky subscribers, otherwise there’s a special offer until 31st August.

News of a top offer on mobile broadband dongles that’s running for the next few days.

We featured these in Show 38 and were happy to recommend the o2 dongle. Rather than topping up with Pay-and-surf credit, this lets you use a credit card to buy a day’s worth of surfing as you need it.

From today, 28th July, o2′s halved the price of their dongle – it’s now just £14.67 (until 4th August). Even if you’ve no immediate plans to use a mobile dongle – this price is a steal, so get one now ready for the day you need one.

Available from broadband.o2.co.uk/mobile

Show 41 of FrequencyCast, the UK’s TV and Tech podcast, has just been released.

In our regular online radio show, we discuss all that’s new with digital TV and technology. Here’s what we cover in this show:

• News Updates: Setanta Sport collapses, a date is set for Freeview HD, plus what’s set to change in our Digital Britain.
• Focus: Broadband – what changes are ahead and how to get a faster connection.
• Hands-on: We play with o2′s fridge door, and a Nintendo get-fit fob.
• Your questions on Sky+, recording radio, photo keyrings and the Setanta aftermath.

You can download Show 41 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html. If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.

 FrequencyCast UK Show 41 [30:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Digital Britain report is finally out. On the 16th of June, Lord Carter’s long-awaited report into plans for our digital future were revealed.

There’s been lots of media chat about this already, but in case you’ve missed it, what we think are the three headlines are as follows:

1. Analogue Radio off by 2015: The intention here is to get national FM services and existing local services over to DAB by 2015, freeing up space for what’s being called “ultra local” stations on FM. Listeners would need to migrate from FM to digital by 2015. There are also targets proposed to get digital radio listening up to 50% by 2013, a somewhat ambitious target, and a target of DAB-only car radios in new cars by 2013. AM stations also need to shift to DAB.

2. Broadband tax: To help achive the Government’s “every home must have at least 2Meg broadband by 2012″ pledge, a stealth tax of 50p per month on all landlines is proposed to improve the infrastructure.

3. Internet piracy. The target is for UK ISPs to reduce online file-sharing and piracy by 70% within a year, with measures ranging from warning letters, speed throttling, to details being passed to copyright owners. Ofcom will be given the power to enforce this.

For the full report, see http://www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/broadcasting/5631.aspx

Tired of your slow old “up to 8 meg” download? BT’s about to ramp this up to “up to 20 meg” at no extra cost.

As part of their roll-out of ADSL2+, around 40% of properties are about to get the speed ramp-up, with this number rising to 55% by March 2010.

The bad news is that if you’re over 3km from your local phone exchange, you might not see much of a difference. Also, speeds will still be throttled during peak hours to ensure that everyone gets a fair crack of the bandwidth whip.

The good news is – the upgrade is free, and for many, there’ll be a sizable speed improvement. All you need to do is agree not to move away from BT for 12 months. More on BT Broadband

See our Speed up Broadband FAQ for some help on speeding up your downloads (including info on the iPlate!)

As we reported in our podcast, Tiscali users are about to find themselves getting their broadband from the Carphone Warehouse, after CPW stepped in to bail out floundering Tiscali.

BT’s been quick to leap in with a deal to tempt people from Tiscali. On offer is £50 off your first bill, a new 802.11n high speed wireless router (the BT Home Hub), speeds of up to 20 megabits per seconds, plus access to BT’s digital TV service, BT Vision.

Tiscali users have until the 30th June 2009 to make the switch for a £50 credit on their BT bill.

Full details of the offer at www.broadband.bt.com/offer

Show 40 of FrequencyCast, the UK’s TV and Tech podcast, has just been released.

In our regular online radio show, we discuss all that’s new with digital TV and technology. Here’s what we cover in this show:

• News Updates: Plans for Freeview HD in doubt, all change for the charts, new content for Top Up, and odd news for H2G2 fans
• Focus: What’s new with wi-fi wireless technology.
• Hands-on: We plan with the world’s most sophisticated pen.
• Your questions on BT Vision, Virgin Media HD, plus your feedback on the Top Up TV failure in May.

You can download Show 40 direct to your MP3 player or listen online at http://www.frequencycast.co.uk/latest.html. If you have an iPod or iPhone, get shows faster by signing up via iTunes.

 FrequencyCast UK Show 40: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Don’t want your Broadband capped? Sky’s just changed their Broadband Max tariff, removing the Fair Use Policy – this means that Sky’s currently the UK’s only ‘truly unlimited’ broadband service. If you’re a heavy Broadband user, switch to Sky Broadband Max for your actual unlimited Broadband service

Go to packages.sky.com/surf for details of Sky’s three Broadband packages.

BT’s just released a new addition to their Total Broadband package… “BT Total Broadband Anywhere”.

For an extra £5 a month, you can get a BT ToGo – This is a Windows Mobile smartphone that switches between wi-fi and the mobile phone network to let you surf and handle emails on the move. Think ‘Blackberry’ and you’ll be on the right track. The ToGo has wi-fi, Bluetooth, is a PDA and comes with a 1.3Meg onboard camera.

More details at www.bt.com/btbroadband.

Some changes to BT’s Total Broadband offering were announced today:

BT Total Broadband technical support is now free. BT’s opting for an 0800 Internet helpdesk number, zapping their former 0845 service.

Secondly – good news for new and existing Broadband customers – they’re dropping £2 a month from their Option 1 and Option 2 packages. Option 1 drops from £17.99 to £15.99 (discounted to £7.95 for the first 3 months), and Option 2 is £20.99 a month. They’re still offering the free BT Vision digital TV recorder, and you can get a BT Home Hub if you order online.

More on today’s changes at www.bt.com/btbroadband

Broadband provider Tiscali and TV-over-Internet firm Homechoice are set to merge (source), and it sounds like Tiscali will be offering TV services to its existing Internet customers later in 2006