Good Week Bad Week 10 October 2008

It’s not been the busiest week in the world of broadband, but let’s assess the winners and losers nevertheless.

It’s been a Good Week for...

Old people – Two bits of good news for the more senior broadband users among us this week. Firstly, Stream IPTV, a service aimed at the elderly offering on-demand broadband programming through a set top box, was launched in Hull. Then, high speed broadband finally came to the sleepy, pensioner-filled village of Long Melford in Suffolk. A local action group acted after residents feared they would have to wait years for fibre optic broadband to arrive.

T-Mobile – The mobile broadband operator had cause for celebration after its latest package led to them shifting all of their bundled laptops. They’re now looking for a new manufacturer partner, after Asus said they could no longer meet T-Mobile’s demands at the price they wanted.

Tesco customers – The supermarket giant announced this week that it might consider launching its own mobile broadband service, to go with the home broadband and phone deals they already offer. After Virgin Media launched their mobile broadband service, it seems more providers are waking up to the potential of mobile broadband.

It’s been a Bad Week for...

Broadband advertising – BT found themselves in hot water after Virgin Media took issue with an advertising claim the company made. The Advertising Standards Agency got involved when BT declared themselves ‘Best Broadband Provider’, without pointing out it was an ADSL-only accolade. Naughty BT.

Free speech – Following last week’s BT Phorm announcement, privacy took another knock with the news that China has been monitoring its citizens’ use of the Skype online chat program. Meanwhile, South Korea announced plans to control what is acceptable for people to transmit via broadband. The new regulations stretch even as far as online forums.

Bank customers – Bad news for the less tech aware as the BBC reports that phishing fraudsters are using the current economic climate to capitalise on people’s fears and extract money from their personal accounts using fake emails.

Stay up to date with all the latest broadband news at CompareBroadbandUK.