The ISP we now have our internet connection with is called Megaline. Unfortunately, since swapping to their service, everyday sees some downtime for connectivity. Even when all is apparently working, packets are often lost, and I can no longer as open as many simultaneous pages, without time outs occurring. That said, it is a lot cheaper, and although only 1/2 the speed, I do get an allowance of 10Gb/month before they throttle me down to 32Kbit/sec, from 128Kbit/sec.
Anyway, we first have a report on the UK’s lagginess (puns will stop now, sorry), when it comes to very fast internet connection availability. This is no great surprise really, given our history with BT’s (formerly part of the GPO) previous monopoly at nearly all stages of communications. Great investment will be needed to push beyond the current 24Mbps ceiling, and even that sort of connection is only really possibly if you live on top of your local exchange. Until we drop twisted pair copper lines as acceptable, the days of fibre optics into every home are a long way off, unless someone like Richard Branson decides that it is economically viable in areas when other Cable TV operators have avoided.

On a more positive note, here we have an article detailing how broadband internet connectivity (even if it isn’t globally breath-takingly fast) has rapidly become the preferred speed, compared to just four years ago, when most people considered dial up speeds acceptable. No pretty table to illustrate the point this time, sorry.

Finally, on a semi-related matter, the BBC News site had details on how some European nation’s citizens are rejecting land lines altogether, in favour of mobile phones. Although this may sound surprising at first, if you take into account that some of the nations, that were unable to develop as quickly under USSR rule, never had high rates for phone lines into every house, and how competitive some mobile phone network companies are in these markets, to try and get, then keep loyal customers, you can begin to see why having no land line number is becoming more common in some areas. Whether these figures include those that only use phone lines for internet usage, and use mobiles for cheaper evening calls etc, I couldn’t ascertain.

Other than possibly the worst PR photo§ I have ever seen, a recent BBC article caught my attention.
Although Britain has reasonably good ADSL coverage, it took a long time, and BT (British Telecom) dragged their feet in some areas, a lot. As they previously had a virtual monopoly on the residential telecommunications industry (barring oddities such as Hull which have the Kingston company serving them), BT were loathe to invest a serious amount of money on fibre optics, for example, just to see other companies come in and profit from other’s investment.
This has left Brits lagging behind in post-ADSL technology, meaning even true 8Mbit connections are still rare to find. LLU (local loop unbundling) has gone some way to remedying this situation, but to ensure we are not left behind, something needs to be done soon.
Check out the story, and I’d be especially interested in hearing from readers who come from other countries as to what your local telecoms infrastructure is like.
Just don’t get me started on Kazakhstan. 128 or 256Kbit ? BROADband to the rest of the world!!!

§ I did check before making that comment - although he does seem to have under bite, the majority of his other publicity photos do not accentuate it so badly.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has released a report on broadband prices & speeds in developed countries. The report states that users are receiving hugely varied standards and price structures, with a very slow take up in the use of fibre optics to replace the copper twisted-pair cabling still used in most country’s telephony systems.
Obviously those countries that had taken up fibre optics had the fastest speeds available, with Japan, Korea, Finland and Sweden offering 100Mbit connections in many areas.
Of the developed countries surveyed, Turkey was the most expensive, with pricing equivalent to $81 per Mbit per second! Compare this to just 22 cents in Japan, and you can start to see the disparity.
I have not yet figured out exactly how to calculate the prices quoted, but for comparison, our ISP here in Kazakhstan charges around $150 per month for a 256Kbit connection, or around $100 if you decide to download than 700Mb (per MONTH!)
When you check this against the Swedish price of $10.79 (the cheapest in the survey), or even the most expensive (Mexico) at just $52.36, which is 4 times quicker anyway, at 1Mbps.

Hopefully, my Dad will find the time soon to look into finding a supplier for his Broadband Internet needs. One of the main reasons I have an interest in this is that I hope when I am next in the UK to sort out a few problems with his PC. Most of the computer is salvaged from parts of my old one, and it is unfortunately mis-behaving. However, as I will not be in the UK for very long, I do not want to spend a lot of my time waiting for updates and other related downloads to complete. It would also be good to be able to show him how the kittens have grown up via our webcams, and live video chatting is slightly painful when one participant is on dial up access still.

Anyway, I have already offered to Compare Broadband services for him, once I know what his priorities are. Some people place more importance on speed than price for example, whilst others would make the decision based more upon their total download allowance in a month than the actual speed at which they can download. The technical support offered can be a deal breaker, as I remember from my days at an ISP in Gloucester.

To help Dad select the right Broadband Provider, we need to look at all the factors I mentioned above, and then select the company that ticks the most amount of important boxes. Simply choosing an ISP because their installation discs are included with your newspaper is rarely a sound move.

Dad recently moved into a new house in Evesham, and has admitted that ADSL might be a good idea sometime soon. I’ve asked him to consider what aspects of a connection will be most important to him - the price, the speed, the amount he is limited to each month etc. Whilst I can then take this informaiton, and do a little research for him, I’ve been out of the loop, ISP-wise in Britain for more than a year.

This is where a Broadband Internet Service Provider comparison site can be SO handy. Now I can just ask him to visit the site, and easily select from the comprehensive listings, whichever ISP seems most appropriate. Whilst the front page has the site’s pick of the month, you can also find a Compare Broadband suppliers table, which lists all the different offers a fair selection of major UK ISPs currently offer.

I’m also pretty sure Dad will want to understand more before deciding. He could either ask me, or to save some time, he can check the articles listed on this site, the most useful of which, for newcomers to ADSL especially, is the one on how to compare Broadband Providers.

So, if you’re reading this Dad, check out the links and let me know what you think. If you’re not my Dad, don’t be shy, feel free to tell me what you think of the site anyway

Founded last year, VenPar (Venture Alliance Partners) is a provider of private equity to entrepreneurs who are looking to setup outstanding companies. They concentrate on the venture capital market globally, although they are based in Copenhagen.

The Venture Alliance Partners is quite flash-heavy, so do make sure you watch it via a broadband connection for a smooth experience, and, obviously, make sure you have the Flash plugin installed for your browser.

Owen from the PPP forums kindly sent me an invite for the Joost application, from the people that bought us Skype.
The idea behind Joost is to enable the transmission of full screen quality video, over the internet in real time.
Quite a lofty ideal, and the interface is quite well layed out. Unfortunately, in the few feeds I’ve selected so far, my little 256KBit connection hasn’t quite been fast enough to keep the stream from skipping, but one day I’ll get a 1Mbit unmetered connection over here, then I’ll be putting Joost to full use.
The main difference between Joost and ‘normal’ TV is that you can choose what to watch and when.
I’ll be posting more details after I’ve tested it a little further.

This post isn’t sponsored at all, I’ve just written it to say thanks to Owen for the invite needed to download the beta application, and to Skype for producing the application Now all I need is for a decent broadband infrastructure to be created in this country, and I’m good to go

(UK relevant)

With so many ISPs (Internet Service Providers) competing for your business in the UK, how can you even start to choose which company to use?

Well, when I was selecting my last British ISP, I concentrated on these key factors…

Price
Speed
Reliability
Independent Recognition

Price, whilst not the only thing to consider, should obviously have a large bearing on your decision. With prices starting at just £14.99, you won’t find a better deal from such a strong company. For a limited time, if you switch to Eclipse, you’ll even get your first month’s bill reduced to zero.

Depending on how far you are from your local exchange, the speeds you can expect from ADSL could reach upto 8Mbps. That means, if you are downloading from a fast server, that waiting for an average MP3 album to download would take less than a couple of minutes!

When it comes to reliability, few home broadband suppliers can match Eclipse’s reputation. If you need some reassurance, why not pop over to their status page a few times, and see just how fast the team react to any minor issues that occur.

As far as independent awards and recognition go, please do take a moment to check out all the organizations, such as PC Pro, PC Advisor, The Sunday Times and Computer Weekly that have awarded Eclipse. There is a summary of all their awards on display, which are impressive to say the least.

If you have any comments on this service, please do let us know.

Bit of a niche product, but as I was transferring some video from my DV camcorder (a Panasonic NV-GS55 kindly given to us by in-laws), I found a program that can take any standard video input on your PC (webcam, DV cameras via firewire & TV cards etc.) and split it between different programs/instances of programs.
Uses?
If you have a broadband connection (and I mean a proper BROADband connection, not the 128Kbit they call broad over here), you could hold multiple video calls. Normally, the first person you setup a video call with will be the only person who can view your webcam.
If that doesn’t make any sense, don’t worry, you don’t need the software ;>

Anyway, the link ..

SplitCam - Freeware Video Clone Software

I’ve not yet tried it out, but will post back with my findings in a few days hopefully - need to get back to work now…

[edit]
OK, the program isn’t working for me yet, so I’ve submitted a support request at their forum. Fingers crossed it’ll be sorted soon.