John's Computer Support Blog - Broadband

Satellite Internet

nospam@example.com (John Crowhurst) — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 17:45:11 +0100

Contrary to popular belief, Sky does not offer a Satellite Internet service. Sky offers Satellite TV with broadband being delivered over an existing BT telephone line.

Satellite Broadband is provided for places where there are no telephone lines or where the exchange doesn't offer the facilities for broadband. Countries such as Africa benefit from this technology.

Satellite Broadband is relatively slow in comparison to telephone delivered broadband (ADSL) or 3G mobile broadband and the hardware is usually prohibitively expensive. A dish will cost between 3-4,000 and monthly contracts start from around £50 per month.

The technology is pretty simple, you send a small upload to the satellite and then be prepared for a large download. The technology is practically useless for anything that requires real time communication, such as VoIP since it takes some time to send the signal up and down instead of over the wire.

BT exchange floods and catches fire

nospam@example.com (John Crowhurst) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:46:02 +0100

BT has lost a tactical exchange in Paddington to a flood which placed the exchange underwater by at least 18 inches. The flood water caused an electrical fire.

The Paddington exchange is a critical one, not only because it is one of BT's core exchanges and connects 437 local exchanges but also 37,500 datastream circuits including the National Datastream.

The 437 local exchanges cover all the exchanges in the South from Kent to Cornwall, Suffollk, London and South Wales.

Customers will experience sync and connection but no data.

The exchange also holds the equipment for Mobile roaming in foreign countries on all the UK mobile networks.

TalkTalk kills Tiscali

nospam@example.com (John Crowhurst) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 09:40:06 +0100

I know I'm 3 months late with this one, but when TalkTalk bought Tiscali back in January, the brand is no more. Of course, existing customers don't need to worry as their accounts remain.

Continue reading "TalkTalk kills Tiscali"

fibercity offers 100Mb broadband in Bournemouth

nospam@example.com (John Crowhurst) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:49:28 +0000

Fibercity has fed fibre optic cables through the city's sewer network in order to minimise disruption to traffic and to enable two post code areas (BH10 and BH11) with super-fast broadband at 100Mb. Since the technology used by fibercity does not rely on existing telephone cables and uses light as its transmission medium its not prone to the same degradation issues that are found with ADSL. With ADSL, the communication travels down the phone line and any problems with the line, perhaps caused by corroding connections that cause static (crackling) will degrade the performance of this type of broadband. The laying of fibre has always been hideously expensive since the need to dig up streets to lay armoured cable (the fibre has to be protected from being broken) Lets hope they can do this for the rest of the UK!

Vodafone successfully trials 16Mb broadband

nospam@example.com (John Crowhurst) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:32:47 +0000

Vodafone successfully trialled the next generation of 3G service in Spain at 16Mb though this is peak speeds, so average is about 4Mb. However, since this is using a new method of encoding you will need new equipment in order to use it at that speed. Telstra, the Australian telephone network managed its peak at 21Mb and plans to upgrade to 42Mb later this year.

Switching broadband providers

nospam@example.com (John Crowhurst) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 11:27:13 +0000

I've recently had customers with problems with broadband providers. AOL have become a disaster area since their takeover by Carphone Warehouse and Virgin (presumably pronounced Vermin by there customers) have had a fault at the Hastings exchange for about a month that they've not got round to fixing yet! If you are looking for a good deal with broadband, I can recommend PlusNet as they are cheap and don't have billing issues (unlike Tiscali). PlusNet have a basic package for Â£10 per month with monthly terms for broadband or Â£17 per month when bundled with a call package. Their website is Plus.net If you wish to see how your broadband provider fares against the competition, or are thinking about switching broadband providers, check out ThinkBroadband's Service Provider comparison site. Choose up to 6 providers and hit compare and they will be graded on performance, reliability and customer service over the past 6 months.