UK's broadband future revealed Monday (The Register)

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UK's broadband future revealed Monday
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 30/11/2001 at 15:53 GMT

The industry group set up to help drive the Government's broadband strategy is due to publish its final report on Monday.

In September, the Broadband Stakeholder Group (BSG) submitted its draft findings to e-commerce Minister Douglas Alexander arguing that services need to be subsidised to stimulate take-up.

The report claimed that the pricing of ADSL is a "huge issue" and warned that the proposed price point of around £50 a month is regarded as a "death knell for ADSL".

Instead, the BSG said the cost of ADSL for home users should be between £20 and £30 a month, which would put it on a par with countries such as Korea and Singapore.

It called for major spending proposals and tax breaks in a bid to kick-start the UK's broadband industry.

However, whether these proposals are kept in the final report when it's published on Monday remains to be seen.

It's thought that some of the more ambitious proposals in the original report will be left out and others simply watered-down.

Research seen by The Register that found that Britain would still be a middle-ranking broadband nation by 2005 even if the Government adopted all the recommendations contained in the BSG report is also likely to be omitted.

The Government is also due to issue its formal response to the report on Monday. ®

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The report claimed that the pricing of ADSL is a "huge issue" and warned that the proposed price point of around £50 a month is regarded as a "death knell for ADSL".

But of course Eircom would say that doesn't apply to our little island, because we're all rich :rolleyes:

corkie

By Tim Richardson
Posted: 05/12/2001 at 15:12 GMT


NTL's unmetered dial-up ISP, ntlworld, will no longer be free from the beginning of next year, the cableco has confirmed.

From February the service will cost existing users £5 a month for 24/7 unmetered net access, although this is extended until May for former Cable & Wireless customers.

New customers will have to pay £10 a month for the unmetered narrowband product.

A 1p-a-minute pay-as-you-go service will also be available.

The cableco has also stopped taking new customers until the launch of the new tariffs next year.

Some NTL customers have already vented their frustration at the price rise.

However, NTL maintains that it is still competitively priced compared to FRIACO-based unmetered services, which typically retail at around £15 a month.

A spokesman for NTL explained that more and more Internet services were moving to a subscription service.

Ntlworld's subscription free service was launched in April 2000 at a time when ISPs were scrambling over themselves to offer flat-fee Net access.

The move even won the backing of prime minister, Tony Blair.

NTL's announcement coincided with AltaVista UK's announcement that it too would be offering an unmetered service, although this venture never got off ground. ®

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The report claimed that the pricing of ADSL is a "huge issue" and warned that the proposed price point of around £50 a month is regarded as a "death knell for ADSL".

Oh dear God...
If only.