Posted by Telecoms on Apr 27, 2009 in
Cheaper Calls,
Telephony So, everyone has heard of Skype, but is it really a business tool or just a way to call our overseas contacts on the cheap ?
Well, in times like these, all companies are looking to save money, so free calls to all other skype users could help save a couple of quid… but do other businesses really use Skype ? Sure they do and you will be surprised at the amount of business that utilise it every day !
Most people aren’t even aware of the features Skype offers to business, so let’s start by looking at a couple of its less obvious features;
- Working from Home - The simplest of all of the scenarios, just divert your office phone to your skype number and answer all calls from anywhere you have an internet connection. You don’t even need a laptop, just purchase one of the many internet-ready phones direct from the Skype website.
- Desktop Integration – Many people think of Skype simply as a cheap phone call solution, but it can do more, much more, for example you can share you desktop with your colleagues, so instead of trying to explain how to do something, show them.. at the click of a button.
- PBX Integration – Skype plugs into your existing phone system, allowing you to take advantage of reduced call costs seamlessly.
- Scalability – As your business expands, so do your requirements, Skype is now fully integrated with OnState allowing you to implement complete call centre solution into your business without having to purchase any hardware.
- Media Capability – Skype supports full web conferencing with all of your contacts straight out of the box
Whilst there are dozens of other competitors appearing every other day, Skype has remained at the forefront of its game for many years now and its well worth subscribing to a free Skype account to check out its true power.
Tags: skype
Posted by Telecoms on Mar 17, 2009 in
broadband There are literally hundreds of broadband comparison sites available now, but only a handful that stand out amongst the crowd.
Here is a list of 5 broadband comparison sites that you should visit before switching your broadband;
Top 10 Broadband http://www.top10-broadband.co.uk/
A user friendly and well designed website, showing you simply and quickly how you can save money or get a better deal from dozens of different broadband providers. Prices are up to date and displayed clearly.
Broadband http://www.broadband.co.uk
Comprehensive broadband comparison site, although it’s worth being very careful with the pricing as many that appear like good deals are actually promotions which only last the first couple of months.
Money Supermarket http://www.moneysupermarket.com/broadband
Very comprehensive and detailed site, showing much more information than most others, shows prices clearly and is one of the few sites to actually mention the disadvantages of signing up with each provider.
Broadband Choices http://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk
Great site for comparing the differences between each of the providers, also shows total annual cost to give you a better idea of the real cost of your new connection.
Prices are displayed clearly and include promotional timeframes.
Broadband Genie http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/
Very simple to use and easy to navigate site, with prices displayed clearly. Not as many broadband providers as most of the other choices.
Tags: broadband comparison sites
Posted by Telecoms on Mar 9, 2009 in
Telephony BT Exchanges is the new directory service from BT, allowing you to lookup business and personal contact details.
There are many other things you can do with BT Exchanges including creating a ‘Plan’ which is a new feature, much like a personal organiser where you can organise all of your contacts into plans. For example, if you are going on holiday, you could create a plan called ‘holiday’ and add into it the travel agent, hotel, airline etc etc.
Another great feature of BT Exchanges is the ability to rate and review business contacts, your review and rating will then be shown under that contact for everyone else to see, which in turn builds up an average overall rating for each and every business.
All contacts you view via BT Exchanges can be saved and added to your ‘Contacts List’ for future reference and you can even click on multiple contacts and build up a short list of contacts for you to call through.
Tags: BT Exchanges, Directory Services
Posted by Telecoms on Mar 4, 2009 in
broadband The Office for National Statistics released their final report for Internet Connectivity at the end of last month, bringing these useful statistics to an end after 9 years of publishing.
The ONS concluded that 95.1% of all internet connections are now via broadband with a decrease of 57.1% of dial-up connections to December 2008.
Also interesting to learn was the speed of peoples internet connections, with 59.6% of broadband users subscribing to a services faster than 2Mbs, whilst the remaining 40.4% subscribed to a services of 2Mbs or slower.
10.7% of subscribers of these high speed subscribers were lucky enough to get speeds of greater than 8Mbs, a 10% increase over the number of 8Mbs+ connections since September of 2008.
The United Kingdom is now ranked 11th in the world for broadband penetration, with 27.6 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, pushing it well infront of Australia, Japan, the United States, Italy and Spain.
Leaders in the Broadband penetration statistics were Denmark with 36.7 broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, followed closely by the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway & Iceland.
Tags: broadband, statistics
Posted by Telecoms on Feb 13, 2009 in
broadband BE Broadband have just restructured their broadband packages, allowing you to get not only one of the UK’s fastest broadband connections, but also a generous free gift.
Offering a maximum speed of 24Mb, BE broadband can offer one of the UK’s fastest broadband packages at one of the most competitive prices.
Starting at just £17.50 per month for the ‘Be Unlimited’ package BE Broadband offers users unlimited downloads at upto 24Mb with a free wireless modem and access to the 24/7 support hotline to assist you in getting set up.
The Professional package is priced at just £21.50 and offers priority support to customers and a faster upload speed, useful for those who upload photos or utilise webcams.
If you choose to sign up for BE Broadband you will be offered a choice of 3 free gifts, a £40 voucher for use at the GAME store, a years free subscription to T3 Magazine or a £40 credit to your account.
To claim your free gifts, use the following codes.
- GAME – for the £40 GAME store vouchers.
- T3MAG – for a years free subscription to T3 Magazine.
- CREDIT – for a £40 credit to your account.
Tags: broadband
Posted by Telecoms on Feb 5, 2009 in
NGN,
Telephony Over the last month or so, the rollout of a new batch of numbers has appeared indicating that the availability for 0844 and 0871 numbers is now becoming low.
You should be aware that 0843 Numbers are charged at the same rate as 0844, not the much cheaper 0845 numbers. Being an extension of the existing 0844 number range, they are also revenue bearing, meaning that if you own the number your provider may provide you with a revenue stream for every call your customers make to them.
Calls to these numbers are charged at a maximum of 5 Pence per minute from a BT landline, other operators will vary.
Currently these numbers fall under 17 different possible pricing codes from BT (ff29, g10, g11, g12, g16, g17, g18, g19, g20, g22, g24, g26, g27, g28, g6, g6, g8 and g9)
0872 and 0873 numbers are extensions of the 0871 numbers and are charged at the same 0871 rate. Again these are revenue bearing numbers which earn you a commission for every call made to them, assuming of course that you own the number.
Calls to these numbers are charged at a maximum of 10 Pence per minute from a BT landline, other operators will vary.
Currently these numbers fall under 11 different possible pricing codes from BT (ff15, ff28, g12, g13, g14, g15, g23, g24, g25, g6 and g7)
For further information on the costs of these calls, specific to your provider, you should consult your specific vendors price guide.
Tags: 0843, 0872, 0873
Posted by Telecoms on Feb 5, 2009 in
broadband Attenuation is a measurement of the loss of ADSL signal strength on your ADSL line and is a very rough way of measuring both how far you are from the exchange and how good your connection is likely to be.
You can find out your current line attenuation by logging onto your ADSL router or modem and looking at a page usually labelled statistics or connection status.
No matter how many times you switch your broadband to new providers you are unlikely to make a great deal of difference to your connection if your line attenuation is too high.
The following table will give you an indication of potential speeds based on your line attenuation.
- Less than 12Db = 24Mb
- Less than 35Db = 8Mb
- Less than 60Db = 2Mb
- Less than 75Db = 512kbps
- More than 75Db+ Likely Poor Service
Of course there are plenty of factors that can cause speeds to fluctuate, including;
- Your ISP’s performance and package offerings
- Electrical Interference
- Internal Wiring Issues
- Internal Interference
- Computer Configuration
- Router Performance
- Contention Ratios
Tags: attenuation, broadband, signal loss
Posted by Telecoms on Jan 20, 2009 in
broadband Secure It
Many ISP will now automatically secure your wireless router before it is shipped, but there are still a few that don’t.
As soon as your wireless router is turned on and connected to the internet it is available for anyone to use until it has been locked down or secured, this can result in all of your neighbours using your internet connection instead of paying for their own.
Refer to your router manual to understand how to secure your router to prevent unauthorised access.
Connect your cable
The whole point of having a wireless router is to be able to put it in a convenient place and not have to use a cable to connect it to your PC. Many people make the mistake of installing the wireless router in another room, or even into cupboards and drawers. Connecting your cable will let you know if the performance problems are due to a poor wireless signal, in which case you can reposition your wireless router to a better/closer location in your house or office.
Move to a different phone socket
Your broadband connection will work better in your primary telephone socket. All other sockets in your house are usually fed from this single primary socket which results in all those sub-sockets being of a much poorer quality due to the additional lengths of copper that are required to reach your router.
Tweak your PC
There are literally hundreds of different tweaks you can do to your PC to enable your internet connection to run faster, way too many to list here, but its worth spending a little time trawling through the various options in google. You could even consider software tools such as Systerac make all these tweeks for you.
Check your firmware
The firmware in your broadband router is often a lot older than you think, and a router you bought just yesterday could have firmware a year or more out of date. Its certainly worth checking the manufacturers website to see if newer firmware is available and if so, what problems or enhancements it offers.
Be Warned: When updating your firmware, you often lose your router configuration, so make sure you have your broadband username and password to hand.
Change your Browser
Older versions of internet explorer that come as default with many Microsoft operating systems perform very poorly, many download images one at a time and can take forever to open a web page. Update your browser to Internet Explorer 7, Firefox or Google Chrome and you will see immediate benefits.
Install a firewall
Installation of a firewall is a great way to block applications you didn’t even know lived on your computer from accessing the internet and eating up your broadband connection. Blocking access to unused application such as MSN, Skype or BBC Iplayer will free up more bandwidth for you to use.
Buy an I-Plate
BT’s I-Plate is a clever piece of kit that works by filtering out noises on the telephone line. These noises can be caused by anything including your microwave, your washing machine and even your Christmas tree lights.
The I-Plate is available from most electrical retailers and costs around £10.
Replace your Router
As with any electrical equipment, routers are evolving all the time, you should look to replace your router every 2 years in order to take advantage of the latest benefits in both performance and security.
Replace your Broadband Connection
If all else fails, it may be worth taking a look at alternative broadband suppliers and making some comparisons. There is a ton of resources to assist you in making this decision, in particular Broadband Choices or Broadband Genie.
Tags: broadband, Improving your broadband connection
Posted by Telecoms on Jan 19, 2009 in
NGN Due to the recent changes imposed on the advertising of non-geographic numbers I thought it worth summarising some points that are already catching many people out.
0843, 0844 or 0845 – You may not use any statement that implies that these calls are charged at local rate. Instead you should make the customer aware of the actual cost of the call, or alternatively that calls are charged at a special services basic rate. Trading Standards suggest either of the following two statements;
• ’Calls will cost up to 5p per minute for BT customers. Calls made using other service providers or mobiles may cost more.’
• ’Calls charged at Special Services basic rate, check with your service provider.’
0870, 0871 or 0872 – You may not to use any statement that implies that these calls are charged at national rate. Instead you should make the customer aware of the actual cost of the call, or alternatively that calls are charged at a special services higher rate. Trading Standards suggest either of the following two statements;
• ’Calls will cost up to 10p per minute for BT customers. Calls made using other service providers or mobiles may cost more.’
• ’Calls charged at Special Services higher rate, check with your service provider.’
0800 & 0808 – These rules are very unclear at the moment, although there are no firm rules that prevent you from stating that these calls are “Freephone” despite calls to those numbers not being free from mobile phones and some landline call tariffs.
Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, it is an offence to give misleading price indications to consumers and to omit details about prices if they also mislead. A £5,000 fine imposed at the magistrate’s court or an unlimited fine and/or a sentence of up to two years in prison can be imposed at the crown court.
For more information you should visit both Ofcom and The Committee of Advertising Practice alternatively contact your local Trading Standards office
Tags: 0843, 0844, 0845, 0870, 0871, 0872, advertising, NGN, non-geographic numbers
Posted by Telecoms on Jan 19, 2009 in
broadband Over the last few months the fog has began to clear from the broadband speed lists and at long last the UK are starting to get a clear picture of exactly what they are likely to get when signing up for a new broadband connection.
Ofcom have been pushing hard for clearer and more realistic information on what customers are likely to REALLY get when ordering their broadband and although the code is only voluntary, there has been a good response from ISP’s offering to comply.
The code has 8 sections, the highlights of which are as follows;
1. Training – The ISP agrees to train all sales people including agents and shop staff on how to implement this code.
2. Information where Broadband is sold – The ISP must give customers and estimate of the maximum speed they can get and not accept an order until the customer has been told their estimated speed and give this speed information in writing.
3. Up to Date, Accurate Information – Ensure all web-based line checkers contain information that is accurate and updated regularly.
4. Dealing with Speed Problems – The ISP must help you ascertain why your broadband is not as slow as promised and should offer an alternative package without any penalties if the actual speed is a lot lower than the original estimate.
5. Giving Information on Websites – If there are any restrictions on the use of the broadband connection (such as a fair use policy) these should be detailed clearly on the website.
6. Making Things Happen – ISP should adopt all code principles within 6 months of signing up.
7. Complying with the Code – Ofcom employ mystery shoppers to confirm this code is followed and also request ad-hoc mystery evidence as additional confirmation
8. Customers and the code – The ISP must tell you it complies with this code, this gives you a clear set of standards to judge them by.
You can get full details on this code direct from the Ofcom website at http://www.ofcom.org.uk/
Service Providers who currently comply with this code of practice are as follows;
AOL Broadband, Aquiss Internet, AAISP, Beaming, Be Broadband, BT Total, Broadband, Dark Group Ltd, Demon, Eclipse Internet, Exa Networks, Fast.co.uk, Firefly Internet, Firenet Internet, Freedom2Surf, Gravity Internet, Greenbee Broadband, IDNet, Karoo, MacAce.net, Madasafish, Namesco Ltd, Netplan Internet Solutions Ltd, NewNet, NewNet Direct services, Nildram, O2 Business Broadband, Odyssey Systems Ltd, O2 Home Broadband, Orange Home, Pipex Homecall, Pipex Internet, Playlouder.com, PlusNet Broadband, Polestar Interactive Ltd, Post Office Limited, Pro-Net Internet Services Ltd, Rutland Telecom, SAQ - Service Access Quality, Sky, Solutios, Stream Networks Ltd (StreamNET), Surf Anytime, TalkTalk, TalkTalk Business, Tiscali, Toucan, Twang, UK Online, Vivaciti, Virgin Media, Waitrose Broadband, YSH, Zen Internet
Tags: broadband, isp, ofcom