Internet in the United Kingdom
Encyclopedia
The United Kingdom
has been involved with the Internet since the latter's creation.
The Internet
country code
top-level domain
(ccTLD) for the United Kingdom
is .uk
and is sponsored by Nominet.
Currently Internet access
is available to businesses and home users in various forms, including dial-up, cable, DSL, and wireless.
in the UK
was, initially, provided by a large number of regional Cable television and telephone companies which gradually merged into larger groups. The development of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology has allowed Broadband to be delivered via traditional copper telephone cables. Also, Wireless Broadband
is now available in some areas. These three technologies (Cable, DSL and Wireless) now compete with each other.
More than half of UK homes had broadband
in 2007, with an average connection speed of 4.6 MBit/s. Bundled communications deals mixing broadband, digital TV, mobile phone
and landline phone access were adopted by 40 per cent of UK households in the same year, up by a third over the previous year. This high level of service is considered the main driver for the recent growth in online advertising and retail.
In 2006 the UK market was dominated by 6 companies, with the top two taking 51%, these being Virgin Media
with a 28% share, and BT
at 23%.
As of July 2011 BT's share had grown by 6% and the company became the broadband market leader.
The UK broadband market is overseen by the watchdog Ofcom
. According to Ofcom's 2007 report the average UK citizen uses the Internet for 36 minutes every day.
s or fibre optic cables. The main cable service provider in the UK is Virgin Media
, although Smallworld Cable have a substantial market share in the areas in which they operate (the Isle Of Wight
, Scotland
and the north-west of England) the current maximum speed a cable customer can expect is 100Mbit/s.
(ADSL) was introduced to the UK in trial stages in the late 1990s and a commercial product was launched in 2000. In the United Kingdom
, most exchanges
, local loop
s and backhauls
are owned and managed by BT Wholesale
, who then wholesale
connectivity via Internet Service Providers, who generally provide the connectivity to the Internet, support, billing and value added services (such as web hosting and email).
BT currently operate 5591 exchanges across the UK with the vast majority being enabled for ADSL. Only a relative handful have not been upgraded to support ADSL products - in fact it is under 100 of the smallest and most rural exchanges. Some exchanges, numbering under 1000, have been upgraded to support SDSL
products. However, these exchanges are often the larger exchanges based in major towns and cities so they still cover a large proportion of the population. SDSL products are aimed more at business customers and are priced higher than ADSL services.
local loops. Initially Bulldog Communications in the London
area, and Easynet
, through their consumer sister company UK Online
, who have enabled exchanges all across the country, from London to Central Scotland
.
This allows them to offer much faster services with typical speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s downstream in certain areas. They can offer products at sometimes considerably lower prices, because they don't have to conform to the same regulatory conditions as BT. For example, 8 unbundled LLU pairs can deliver 10Mbits/s over 3775 meters for half the price of a similar Fibre connection.
Another company, Be*, is offering speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s downstream, using ADSL2+
which is currently available in many towns and cities across the UK. Exchanges are continually being upgraded (depending on demand) to increasing speeds across the country. Be* were taken over by O2 in 2007.
Home 250, Home 500, Home 1000 and Home 2000 (contention ratio
of 50:1); and Office 500, Office 1000, and Office 2000 (contention ratio of 20:1). The number in the product name indicates the downstream data rate in kilobits per second. The upstream data rate is up to 250 kbit
/s for all products.
For BT Wholesale ADSL products, users initially had to live within 3.5 kilometres of the local telephone exchange to receive ADSL, but this limit was increased thanks to RADSL (Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line), although users with RADSL may have a reduced upstream rate, depending on the quality of their line. There are still areas that cannot receive ADSL because of technical limitations, not least of which networks in housing areas built with aluminium cable rather than copper in the 1980s and 1990s, and areas served by optical fibre (TPON), though these are slowly being serviced with copper.
In September 2004, BT Wholesale removed the line length / loss limits for 500 kbit/s ADSL, instead employing a tactic of "suck it and see
" — enabling the line, then seeing if ADSL would work on it. This sometimes includes the installation of a filtered faceplate on the customer's master socket, so as to eliminate poor quality telephone extension cables inside the customer's premises which can be a source of high frequency noise.
In the past, the majority of home users used packages with 500 kbit/s (downstream) and 250 kbit/s (upstream) with a 50:1 contention ratio. However, BT Wholesale introduced the option of a new charging structure to ISPs which means that the wholesale service cost was the same regardless of the ADSL data rate, with charges instead being based on the amount of data transferred. Nowadays, most home users use a package whose data rate is only limited by the technical limitations of their telephone line. Initially this was 2 Mbit
/s downstream. Nowadays, most home products are ADSL Max
based (up to 7.15 Mbit/s).
Both Max services offer downstream data rates of up to 7.15 Mbit/s. Upstream data rates are up to 400 kbit/s for the standard product and up to 750 kbit/s for the premium product. (Whilst the maximum downstream data rate for IPStream Max is often touted as 8 Mbit/s, this is in fact misleading because, in a departure from previous practice, it actually refers to the gross ATM
data rate. The maximum data rate available at the IP
level is 7.15 Mbit/s; the maximum TCP
payload rate — the rate you would actually see for file transfer — would be about 7.0 Mbit/s.)
The actual downstream data rate achieved on any given Max line is subject to the capabilities of the line. Depending on the stable ADSL synchonisation rate negotiated, BT's system applies a fixed rate limit from one of the following data rates: 160 kbit/s, 250 kbit/s, 500 kbit/s, then in 500 kbit/s steps up to 7.0 Mbit/s, then a final maxium rate of 7.15 Mbit/s.
Contention ratios are no longer officially stated either, except that the Office products will generally see a reduced level of contention to their Home counterparts. This is the product of amalgamating Home and Office users onto a single consolidated, but larger, virtual path.
(formerly Freeserve and now Orange SA
in the UK
) were told by the Advertising Standards Authority
to change the way that they advertised their 512 kbit/s broadband service in Britain, removing the words "full speed" which rival companies claimed was misleading people into thinking it was the fastest available service.
In a similar way, on April 9, 2003 the Advertising Standards Authority
ruled against ISP NTL, saying that NTL's 128 kbit/s cable modem service must not be marketed as "broadband". Ofcom
reported in June 2005 that there were more broadband than dial-up connections for the first time in history.
In the third quarter of 2005 with the merger of NTL and Telewest
, a new alliance was formed to create the largest market share of broadband users. This alliance brought about huge increases in bandwidth allocations for cable customers (minimum speed increasing from the industry norm of 512 kbit/s to 2 Mbit/s home lines with both companies planning to have all domestic customers upgraded to at least 4 Mbit/s downstream and ranging up to 10 Mbit/s and beyond by mid-2006.) along with the supply of integrated services such as Digital TV and Phone packages.
March 2006 saw the nationwide launch of BT Wholesale's up to 8 Mbit/s ADSL services, known as Max ADSL. Max based packages are available to end users on any broadband enabled exchange in the UK.
Since 2003 BT has been introducing SDSL
to exchanges in many of the major cities. Services are currently offered at upload/download speeds of 256 kbit/s, 512 kbit/s, 1 Mbit/s or 2 Mbit/s. Unlike ADSL, which is typically 256 kbit/s upload, SDSL upload speeds are the same as the download speed. BT usually provide a new copper pair for SDSL installs, which can be used only for the SDSL connection. At a few hundred pounds a quarter, SDSL is significantly more expensive than ADSL, but is significantly cheaper than a leased line. SDSL is marketed to businesses and offers low contention ratios, and in some cases, a Service Level Agreement. At present, the BT Wholesale SDSL enablement programme has stalled, most probably due to a lack of uptake.
threw down the gauntlet by offering so-called ‘free’ broadband along with their telephone package. Rival, Orange
responded by offering ‘free’ broadband for some mobile customers. Many other smaller ISPs have responded by offering similar bundled packages. O2 also entered the broadband market by taking over LLU provider Be*, while Sky (BSkyB) had already taken over LLU broadband provider Easynet
. In July 2006, Sky entered the broadband arena by announcing 2 Mbit/s broadband to be available free to Sky customers and a higher speed connection at a lower price than most rivals.
In 2007 BT
announced service trials for ADSL2+. Entanet
, BT Wholesale
and BT Retail
were chosen as the 3 service providers for the first service trial in the West Midlands
In 2011, BT rolled out 100Mbps FTTP broadband in Milton Keynes
.
Also, Virgin Media declared that 13 million UK homes are covered by Virgin Media’s fiber optic broadband network, and that by the end of 2012 they all should be covered by this 100Mb broadband that Virgin Media are rolling out. There are over 100 towns across the UK that have access to their super fast broadband network.
In October 2011, British operator Hyperoptic launched a 1Gbit/sec FTTH service in London.
with a broadband connection.
).
became the first Europe
an geographic region with 100% broadband coverage and one of a few outside Asia
. This was achieved by a partnership between the Northern Ireland
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and BT Northern Ireland.
The survey gathered answers from 2,000 British parents of children ages 10 and under. The survey was used as a marketing tool to coincide with the release of Westcoastcloud's new iPad Internet content filtering product.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
has been involved with the Internet since the latter's creation.
The Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
country code
Country code
Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric geographical codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this. The best known of these is ISO 3166-1...
top-level domain
Top-level domain
A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last label of a...
(ccTLD) for the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
is .uk
.uk
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United Kingdom. , it is the fourth most popular top-level domain worldwide , with over 9.5 million registrations....
and is sponsored by Nominet.
Currently Internet access
Internet access
Many technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....
is available to businesses and home users in various forms, including dial-up, cable, DSL, and wireless.
Dial-up
Dial-up Internet access was first introduced in the UK by Pipex. This narrowband service has been almost entirely replaced by the new broadband technologies, and is generally only used as a backup.Broadband
Broadband Internet accessBroadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was, initially, provided by a large number of regional Cable television and telephone companies which gradually merged into larger groups. The development of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology has allowed Broadband to be delivered via traditional copper telephone cables. Also, Wireless Broadband
WiMAX
WiMAX is a communication technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas. The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update up to 1 Gbit/s for fixed stations...
is now available in some areas. These three technologies (Cable, DSL and Wireless) now compete with each other.
More than half of UK homes had broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
in 2007, with an average connection speed of 4.6 MBit/s. Bundled communications deals mixing broadband, digital TV, mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
and landline phone access were adopted by 40 per cent of UK households in the same year, up by a third over the previous year. This high level of service is considered the main driver for the recent growth in online advertising and retail.
In 2006 the UK market was dominated by 6 companies, with the top two taking 51%, these being Virgin Media
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...
with a 28% share, and BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
at 23%.
As of July 2011 BT's share had grown by 6% and the company became the broadband market leader.
The UK broadband market is overseen by the watchdog Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
. According to Ofcom's 2007 report the average UK citizen uses the Internet for 36 minutes every day.
Cable
Cable Broadband uses Coaxial cableCoaxial cable
Coaxial cable, or coax, has an inner conductor surrounded by a flexible, tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. The term coaxial comes from the inner conductor and the outer shield sharing the same geometric axis...
s or fibre optic cables. The main cable service provider in the UK is Virgin Media
Virgin Media
Virgin Media Inc. is a company which provides fixed and mobile telephone, television and broadband internet services to businesses and consumers in the United Kingdom...
, although Smallworld Cable have a substantial market share in the areas in which they operate (the Isle Of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
and the north-west of England) the current maximum speed a cable customer can expect is 100Mbit/s.
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber LineAsymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Asymmetric digital subscriber line is a type of digital subscriber line technology, a data communications technology that enables faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. It does this by utilizing frequencies that are not used by a voice...
(ADSL) was introduced to the UK in trial stages in the late 1990s and a commercial product was launched in 2000. In the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, most exchanges
Telephone exchange
In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls...
, local loop
Local loop
In telephony, the local loop is the physical link or circuit that connects from the demarcation point of the customer premises to the edge of the carrier or telecommunications service provider's network...
s and backhauls
Backhaul (telecommunications)
In a hierarchical telecommunications network the backhaul portion of the network comprises the intermediate links between the core network, or backbone, of the network and the small subnetworks at the "edge" of the entire hierarchical network...
are owned and managed by BT Wholesale
BT Wholesale
BT Wholesale is a division of BT Group responsible for the wholesale leasing of PSTN lines, broadband services and other telephony services to retail customers such as BT Retail, Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse.-External links:*...
, who then wholesale
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
connectivity via Internet Service Providers, who generally provide the connectivity to the Internet, support, billing and value added services (such as web hosting and email).
BT currently operate 5591 exchanges across the UK with the vast majority being enabled for ADSL. Only a relative handful have not been upgraded to support ADSL products - in fact it is under 100 of the smallest and most rural exchanges. Some exchanges, numbering under 1000, have been upgraded to support SDSL
Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line
Symmetric digital subscriber line can have two meanings:* In the wider sense it is a collection of Internet access technologies based on DSL that offer symmetric bandwidth upstream and downstream...
products. However, these exchanges are often the larger exchanges based in major towns and cities so they still cover a large proportion of the population. SDSL products are aimed more at business customers and are priced higher than ADSL services.
Unbundled local loop
Many companies are now operating their own services using unbundledLocal loop unbundling
Local loop unbundling is the regulatory process of allowing multiple telecommunications operators to use connections from the telephone exchange to the customer's premises...
local loops. Initially Bulldog Communications in the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
area, and Easynet
Easynet
Easynet Global Services are a provider of managed network, hosting and telepresence solutions for businesses and enterprises worldwide.Founded in 1994, Easynet Global Services are part of the Easynet group of companies, along with Easynet Connect and UK Online.It was a part of BSkyB, a FTSE top 50...
, through their consumer sister company UK Online
UK Online
UK Online was a consumer Internet service provider that operated within the UK, and began as a dial-up provider in 1994. Network provider Easynet acquired the company in 1996....
, who have enabled exchanges all across the country, from London to Central Scotland
Central Belt
The Central Belt of Scotland is a common term used to describe the area of highest population density within Scotland. Despite the name, it is not geographically central but is nevertheless situated at the 'waist' of Scotland on a conventional map and the term 'central' is used in many local...
.
This allows them to offer much faster services with typical speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s downstream in certain areas. They can offer products at sometimes considerably lower prices, because they don't have to conform to the same regulatory conditions as BT. For example, 8 unbundled LLU pairs can deliver 10Mbits/s over 3775 meters for half the price of a similar Fibre connection.
Another company, Be*, is offering speeds of up to 24 Mbit/s downstream, using ADSL2+
ITU G.992.5
ITU G.992.5 is an ITU standard, also referred to as ADSL2+ or ADSL2Plus. Commercially it is notable for its maximum theoretical download speed of 24 Mbit/s.-Technical information:...
which is currently available in many towns and cities across the UK. Exchanges are continually being upgraded (depending on demand) to increasing speeds across the country. Be* were taken over by O2 in 2007.
IPStream
Up until the launch of "Max" services, the only ADSL packages available via BT Wholesale were known as IPStreamIpstream
IPstream is the most highly-used wholesale broadband Internet service in the United Kingdom. BT Wholesale sells the service to ISPs and IPTV providers, who use it to provide ADSL services to customers over Openreach telephone lines....
Home 250, Home 500, Home 1000 and Home 2000 (contention ratio
Contention ratio
In computer networking, the contention ratio is the ratio of the potential maximum demand to the actual bandwidth. The higher the contention ratio, the greater the number of users that may be trying to use the actual bandwidth at any one time and, therefore, the...
of 50:1); and Office 500, Office 1000, and Office 2000 (contention ratio of 20:1). The number in the product name indicates the downstream data rate in kilobits per second. The upstream data rate is up to 250 kbit
Kilobit
The kilobit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix kilo is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 103 , and therefore,...
/s for all products.
For BT Wholesale ADSL products, users initially had to live within 3.5 kilometres of the local telephone exchange to receive ADSL, but this limit was increased thanks to RADSL (Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line), although users with RADSL may have a reduced upstream rate, depending on the quality of their line. There are still areas that cannot receive ADSL because of technical limitations, not least of which networks in housing areas built with aluminium cable rather than copper in the 1980s and 1990s, and areas served by optical fibre (TPON), though these are slowly being serviced with copper.
In September 2004, BT Wholesale removed the line length / loss limits for 500 kbit/s ADSL, instead employing a tactic of "suck it and see
Suck It and See
Suck It and See is the fourth studio album by English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, released 6 June 2011 in the UK and 7 June in the US, following their 2011 North American tour. The band worked with producer James Ford on this album and promised a more "vintage" style. The music video for "Brick...
" — enabling the line, then seeing if ADSL would work on it. This sometimes includes the installation of a filtered faceplate on the customer's master socket, so as to eliminate poor quality telephone extension cables inside the customer's premises which can be a source of high frequency noise.
In the past, the majority of home users used packages with 500 kbit/s (downstream) and 250 kbit/s (upstream) with a 50:1 contention ratio. However, BT Wholesale introduced the option of a new charging structure to ISPs which means that the wholesale service cost was the same regardless of the ADSL data rate, with charges instead being based on the amount of data transferred. Nowadays, most home users use a package whose data rate is only limited by the technical limitations of their telephone line. Initially this was 2 Mbit
Megabit
The megabit is a multiple of the unit bit for digital information or computer storage. The prefix mega is defined in the International System of Units as a multiplier of 106 , and therefore...
/s downstream. Nowadays, most home products are ADSL Max
ADSL Max
ADSL Max is a cover term for the UK telco BT's range of commercial ADSL services that are rate-adaptive and are deployed over BT phone lines. BT's ADSL Max services were launched in March 2006.- Rate-adaptive service :...
based (up to 7.15 Mbit/s).
Max and Max Premium
Following successful trials, BT announced the availability of higher speed services known as BT ADSL Max and BT ADSL Max Premium in March 2006. BT made the "Max" product available to more than 5300 exchanges, serving around 99% of UK households and businesses.Both Max services offer downstream data rates of up to 7.15 Mbit/s. Upstream data rates are up to 400 kbit/s for the standard product and up to 750 kbit/s for the premium product. (Whilst the maximum downstream data rate for IPStream Max is often touted as 8 Mbit/s, this is in fact misleading because, in a departure from previous practice, it actually refers to the gross ATM
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Asynchronous Transfer Mode is a standard switching technique designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks. It uses asynchronous time-division multiplexing, and it encodes data into small, fixed-sized cells. This differs from approaches such as the Internet Protocol or Ethernet that...
data rate. The maximum data rate available at the IP
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
level is 7.15 Mbit/s; the maximum TCP
Transmission Control Protocol
The Transmission Control Protocol is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP is one of the two original components of the suite, complementing the Internet Protocol , and therefore the entire suite is commonly referred to as TCP/IP...
payload rate — the rate you would actually see for file transfer — would be about 7.0 Mbit/s.)
The actual downstream data rate achieved on any given Max line is subject to the capabilities of the line. Depending on the stable ADSL synchonisation rate negotiated, BT's system applies a fixed rate limit from one of the following data rates: 160 kbit/s, 250 kbit/s, 500 kbit/s, then in 500 kbit/s steps up to 7.0 Mbit/s, then a final maxium rate of 7.15 Mbit/s.
Contention ratios are no longer officially stated either, except that the Office products will generally see a reduced level of contention to their Home counterparts. This is the product of amalgamating Home and Office users onto a single consolidated, but larger, virtual path.
Speeds
On August 13, 2004 the ISP WanadooWanadoo
Wanadoo is the former name of the ISP division of Orange SA, which is a subsidiary of France Télécom. It operated in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, Mauritius, Madagascar, Lebanon, and Jordan...
(formerly Freeserve and now Orange SA
Orange SA
Orange is the brand used by France Télécom for its mobile network operator and Internet service provider subsidiaries. It is the fifth largest telecom operator in the world, with 210 million customers . The brand was created in 1994 for Hutchison Telecom's UK mobile phone network, which was...
in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
) were told by the Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...
to change the way that they advertised their 512 kbit/s broadband service in Britain, removing the words "full speed" which rival companies claimed was misleading people into thinking it was the fastest available service.
In a similar way, on April 9, 2003 the Advertising Standards Authority
Advertising Standards Authority (United Kingdom)
The Advertising Standards Authority is the self-regulatory organisation of the advertising industry in the United Kingdom. The ASA is a non-statutory organisation and so cannot interpret or enforce legislation. However, its code of advertising practice broadly reflects legislation in many instances...
ruled against ISP NTL, saying that NTL's 128 kbit/s cable modem service must not be marketed as "broadband". Ofcom
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...
reported in June 2005 that there were more broadband than dial-up connections for the first time in history.
In the third quarter of 2005 with the merger of NTL and Telewest
Telewest
Telewest, formerly Telewest Broadband and Telewest Communications was a cable Internet, broadband internet, telephone supplier and cable television provider in the United Kingdom...
, a new alliance was formed to create the largest market share of broadband users. This alliance brought about huge increases in bandwidth allocations for cable customers (minimum speed increasing from the industry norm of 512 kbit/s to 2 Mbit/s home lines with both companies planning to have all domestic customers upgraded to at least 4 Mbit/s downstream and ranging up to 10 Mbit/s and beyond by mid-2006.) along with the supply of integrated services such as Digital TV and Phone packages.
March 2006 saw the nationwide launch of BT Wholesale's up to 8 Mbit/s ADSL services, known as Max ADSL. Max based packages are available to end users on any broadband enabled exchange in the UK.
Since 2003 BT has been introducing SDSL
SDSL
SDSL may refer to:*Symmetric digital subscriber line*Site-directed spin labeling...
to exchanges in many of the major cities. Services are currently offered at upload/download speeds of 256 kbit/s, 512 kbit/s, 1 Mbit/s or 2 Mbit/s. Unlike ADSL, which is typically 256 kbit/s upload, SDSL upload speeds are the same as the download speed. BT usually provide a new copper pair for SDSL installs, which can be used only for the SDSL connection. At a few hundred pounds a quarter, SDSL is significantly more expensive than ADSL, but is significantly cheaper than a leased line. SDSL is marketed to businesses and offers low contention ratios, and in some cases, a Service Level Agreement. At present, the BT Wholesale SDSL enablement programme has stalled, most probably due to a lack of uptake.
Recent developments
In 2006, the UK market has been about convergence and takeovers. TalkTalkTalkTalk
TalkTalk is a pay television, telecommunications and internet service provider company headquartered in London, United Kingdom...
threw down the gauntlet by offering so-called ‘free’ broadband along with their telephone package. Rival, Orange
Orange UK
Orange is a mobile network operator and internet service provider in the United Kingdom, which launched in 1994. It was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but was purchased by France Télécom in 2000, which then adopted the Orange brand for all its other mobile communications activities...
responded by offering ‘free’ broadband for some mobile customers. Many other smaller ISPs have responded by offering similar bundled packages. O2 also entered the broadband market by taking over LLU provider Be*, while Sky (BSkyB) had already taken over LLU broadband provider Easynet
Easynet
Easynet Global Services are a provider of managed network, hosting and telepresence solutions for businesses and enterprises worldwide.Founded in 1994, Easynet Global Services are part of the Easynet group of companies, along with Easynet Connect and UK Online.It was a part of BSkyB, a FTSE top 50...
. In July 2006, Sky entered the broadband arena by announcing 2 Mbit/s broadband to be available free to Sky customers and a higher speed connection at a lower price than most rivals.
In 2007 BT
BT Group
BT Group plc is a global telecommunications services company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest telecommunications services companies in the world and has operations in more than 170 countries. Through its BT Global Services division it is a major supplier of...
announced service trials for ADSL2+. Entanet
Entanet
Entanet International is a British Wholesale ISP and is a member of the Internet Service Providers Association -1996:Entanet is formed as a limited company in November after running as a separate business unit with Enta Technologies since February.-2005:...
, BT Wholesale
BT Wholesale
BT Wholesale is a division of BT Group responsible for the wholesale leasing of PSTN lines, broadband services and other telephony services to retail customers such as BT Retail, Vodafone and Carphone Warehouse.-External links:*...
and BT Retail
BT Retail
BT Retail is the consumer sales arm of Britain's BT Group.BT Retail is responsible for selling PSTN, BT Total Broadband, BT Vision, etc to consumers and end business users...
were chosen as the 3 service providers for the first service trial in the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
In 2011, BT rolled out 100Mbps FTTP broadband in Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes , sometimes abbreviated MK, is a large town in Buckinghamshire, in the south east of England, about north-west of London. It is the administrative centre of the Borough of Milton Keynes...
.
Also, Virgin Media declared that 13 million UK homes are covered by Virgin Media’s fiber optic broadband network, and that by the end of 2012 they all should be covered by this 100Mb broadband that Virgin Media are rolling out. There are over 100 towns across the UK that have access to their super fast broadband network.
In October 2011, British operator Hyperoptic launched a 1Gbit/sec FTTH service in London.
Wireless Broadband
The term "Wireless Broadband" generally refers to the provision of a wireless routerWireless router
A Wireless router is a device that performs the functions of a router but also includes the functions of a wireless access point and a network switch. They are commonly used to allow access to the Internet or a computer network without the need for a cabled connection. It can function in a wired...
with a broadband connection.
Mobile Broadband
Mobile broadband is high-speed Internet access provided by mobile phone operators using a device that requires a sim card to access the service (such as the Huawei E220Huawei E220
The Huawei E220 is a Huawei HSDPA access device manufactured by Huawei and notable for using the USB interface .Technically it is a modem, USB and virtual CD-ROM device....
).
Northern Ireland
In 2005, Northern IrelandNorthern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
became the first Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an geographic region with 100% broadband coverage and one of a few outside Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
. This was achieved by a partnership between the Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and BT Northern Ireland.
School children's access to the Internet
A survey on UK school children's access to the Internet commissioned by security company Westcoastcloud found:- nearly a third of UK children have a mobile phone,
- 15% use smartphones regularly,
- 10% have an iPhone,
- 5% have an iPad,
- 16% have access to a laptop computer,
- 8% have a social networking account,
- 25% have an e-mail address,
- most use their smartphone primarily to make phone calls, but 20% send and receive text messages, 10% go online, and 5% draft and send email,
- 50% have no parental controls installed on their internet connected devices,
- 5% use their phone or laptop when their parents are out,
- 50% of parents said they have concerns about the lack of controls installed on their children's Internet devices,
- 68% of parents who bought their children smartphones said they did so to keep better track of their children,
- 17% of surveyed parents bought phones after being pestered by their kids, and
- most pay around 10 British pounds per month on children's phone bills, although 20% pay 20 pounds or more.
The survey gathered answers from 2,000 British parents of children ages 10 and under. The survey was used as a marketing tool to coincide with the release of Westcoastcloud's new iPad Internet content filtering product.