Virgin Media's broadband speed claims misled the public, ASA rules

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A recent advertising campaign for Virgin Media’s broadband packages has been deemed misleading to the public, because it didn’t make its traffic management policies plain enough.

BT complained about Virgin Media’s “hate to wait” campaign, which claimed it possible to download a half-hour TV show in under 26 minutes on their “up to 2Mbps” ‘M’ package. The size of the TV show used in the ad was 341MB, which exceeds the 300MB peak-time download threshold…

Dundee to get super-fast broadband through the sewers

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Residents of Dundee will soon be able to say they have something in common with the people of Bournemouth, as it becomes the first city in Scotland to have fibre optic cabling installed in its sewer system.

It’s not clear when H20 will begin work in Dundee’s dank and smelly underworld, but when it’s complete, super-fast 100Mbps broadband should be available to everyone – at least, those who are prepared to pay for it…

Nothing to do with Apple – Ofcom to trade off UHF bandwidth

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With digital switchover beginning at the end of this year and due to be complete by 2012, UK communication industry regulator Ofcom will find themselves with a whole load of spare UHF bandwidth and no analogue TV service to use it.

Their plan is to auction off these vacant parts of the UK electromagentic spectrum as they become available, which could be licensed by, radio, TV, broadband companies, mobile networks or whatever new technologies come along…

3 mobile busting out mobile routers for home networking

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Seeing as everyone’s been going a bit crazy for the whole wireless USB broadband dongle scene, 3 has decided to up its ‘offering’ – by adding a home router to its wireless broadband range.

It’s all because a few extremely forward-thinking people are using their 3 dongles to totally replace their home broadband connection. So, kindly old 3, wants to make it easier on everyone by releasing a combined router/dongle that’ll let us use laptops, PSPs…

Super-duper-fast broadband to surge from Bournemouth's sewers

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Bournemouth has been selected as the first UK town to get super-fast fibre network installed in its sewers. Fibre firm H20 is planning to extend its service from businesses and the Council to ordinary consumers. Work on the network will start in the next six months.

Around 88,000 homes will be given access to up to 100Mbps internet service meaning that they will be free to watch Eastenders on iPlayer all day long without fear of anyone whinging about Fair Usage policies…

Analysts claim O2's mobile broadband is overpriced and too exclusive

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It appears I wasn’t the only one concerned about O2’s mobile broadband, which launched last Friday. Analyst firm Ovum (not related to this ovum) has reported that their package is overpriced, and too exclusive.

Being available purely to existing customers who have home broadband or a SIM is akin to shooting themselves in the foot, a senior analyst, Steven Hartley, at Ovum claims. “None of the other companies make this stipulation, although 3…

Virgin Media trials complicated new traffic management policies, touting "efficiency". Uh-huh?

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Virgin Media has been throttling its customers’ broadband speeds for at least a year now, but it seems that the traffic management policy wasn’t complicated enough for them, so they’ve started trails of a new one.

Oh, it nicely messes up our Virgin Media Speed Throttling FAQ, too. Thanks Mr Berkett.

From now on, if you’re unlucky enough to be a Virgin Media broadband customer in Preston, Wigan, Blackpool, Camden, Dalston, Enfield and Haringey, you’ll have to get your head around some new policies. Here goes my attempt at explaining it. Let’s see if I get there before my brain numbs…