Broadband provider O2 has conducted a survey which shows that its customers are more concerned with getting high speed, consistent broadband and top-notch customer service than with potential job losses and even NHS waiting times.

Since the survey is conducted by O2 and presumably targeted fairly broadband-aware citizens, this result may seem less surprising. However, the 41 per cent of respondents that said they were daily impacted by a sluggish broadband connection was ahead of the other frequent frustrations by a margin that is impossible to ignore.

Only 14 per cent of people said that extended waiting periods before treatment by the NHS were a daily irritant, which is in stark contrast to the 36 per cent of people who said that unhelpful or rude customer service representatives would adversely affect them in daily life.

O2 conducted the survey of over 2000 people at the beginning of the month and it is publishing the findings in order to promote a new advertising campaign that identifies familiar obstacles and pitfalls that broadband users may encounter with their internet service providers (ISPs); pitfalls which O2 claims to avoid.

O2’s Felix Geyr said that the arrival of the new coalition government and the results of the survey show that ISPs will need to alter their current policies and address current inadequacies in order to win the support and respect of the public.

73 per cent of the respondents said that a quick fix for these issues in the first few months of the new government would be desirable. However, most experts agree that there are more pressing issues facing the coalition than getting cheap cable broadband out into every home and forcing ISPs to shape up their customer service departments.

Broadband provider O2 has just launched a new range of promotional offers to encourage potential broadband customers to sign up for a broadband and home phone package which is free for the first three months.

As with most of O2’s deals, if you are an existing O2 mobile customer you can unlock even more savings potential, as the Standard broadband bundle, which has inclusive evening and weekend calls to UK landline numbers, is now £17 monthly.

It is estimated that existing O2 mobile customers will save about £50 over the first three months of the free service, whilst non-O2 mobile customers will save even more, although after the initial period the price will be higher if you lack an O2 mobile contract.

O2’s broadband deals have a significant advantage over BT broadband options, because the line rental for O2 home phone customers is £9.50, which is over £2 cheaper than BT offers.

O2’s anytime home phone deal is slightly more expensive, but it does let you make unlimited free calls at any time of the day or night to premium rate numbers beginning in 0845 or 0870.

O2’s Sally Cowdry said that her firm is putting a lot of effort into this new home broadband and phone package in order to cement its position as one of the UK’s best value and most comprehensive providers.

O2 is keen to emphasise the fact that it is attempting to make its pricing as transparent as possible and that combining multiple services into one monthly package is a great way in which to save money.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard added “O2 is really upping its game in the home broadband market, providing consumers with many compelling reasons to choose carefully when looking to switch broadband providers.”

BT says that it is planning to roll out high speed broadband across a wider area of the UK by enabling more local telephone exchanges for its wholesale broadband service.

An official announcement details a total of nearly 150 different locations around the nation that are going to benefit as a result of these plans and local customers will be able to get online at maximum speeds of 24Mbps once the work has been completed.

BT aims to ensure that nearly 17 million UK customers are online using this faster connection technology by mid-2011, with home broadband and business broadband packages both benefiting from the roll out.

BT’s wholesale manager Emma Elshof confirmed that the provider would be performing the upgrade work over the next few months. She said that even more changes were on the way and that over the summer BT was planning to make some significant announcements.

BT has set a deadline of early 2011 as the period by which the wholesale broadband connections will be available at most of the planned sites, offering an estimated 75 per cent of the population the option to access the internet at 24Mbps.

Although the news about the BT wholesale product reaching more customers is good, most people will be more concerned about the availability of its fibre-to-the-cabinet service. BT Infinity is making its way into more communities, but the progress will seem sluggish for anyone in a community where no upgrade is planned.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard said “It is encouraging to see BT working on bringing faster ADSL broadband to more of the UK and cheap cable broadband is still progressing steadily in its availability. We can only hope that competition and investment will drive home broadband forward.”

Residents in and around Birmingham and the West Midlands are waiting to see which location in their region will be chosen to be the proving ground for 100Mbps superfast broadband.

High speed internet connectivity is being promoted as an essential asset in the area and one which will encourage regeneration and bring economic growth and stability along with it.

Campaigners are hoping that three different areas will be chosen in the 100Mbps trials, although in all likelihood it will be urban Birmingham that feels the benefits before more isolated locations.

A group of local businesses is campaigning for faster broadband in the region, hoping to aid the progress of the roll-out by costing the installation and upkeep itself in order to attract investment from big telecoms firms.

Hopeful locals will have to wait until early June to find out how the investigations and preliminary tests are progressing.

Campaigners believe that the growth of superfast broadband will allow more people to work from home, which will encourage small businesses and entrepreneurs to stay locally and boost the economy.

Broadband activist and businessman Glyn Pickford told the Birmingham Post that consumers and businesses would benefit from faster broadband in the West Midlands. Mr Pickford also stressed that big business would benefit from 100Mbps broadband and that regeneration is reliant upon its availability.

It is believed that members of the public will need to be educated as to the benefits of superfast broadband and new BT broadband options using fibre technology, as many are aware that it is coming but unsure as to how it will impact upon their daily lives.

Simple Broadband’s Simon Gerrard added “It is great to see regions around the UK campaigning for faster broadband and seeing their wishes come true. A stream of new initiatives and ever more diverse BT broadband options prove that 100Mbps broadband is a nationwide issue.”

Business and home broadband customers will be pleased to learn that BT has announced various locations that will be benefiting from a fibre optic broadband upgrade in the next few months.

Its BT Infinity service, which uses fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology has so far been available in limited areas of the UK, but now BT says that an additional four million business and home users will be able to enjoy download speeds of up to 40Mbps.

A BT spokesperson said that the telecoms giant is committed to bringing 40 per cent of the UK population some form of fibre optic broadband by 2012 and now it has announced that customers in London, the Midlands, Yorkshire and East Anglia will be some of the first to experience the speed boost.

BT will not be the only broadband provider offering fibre optic services as part of the new upgrades, as it will also be selling on its service to ISPs in order to generate competition and variety. This will be welcomed by business broadband customers who may not be convinced by the current BT Infinity tariffs.

More than 300 local telephone exchanges are being upgraded as part of the new initiative and around 190 of these will be located in the south and east of the UK. The North West will see 30 exchanges upgraded and the Midlands is getting around 40 fibre-ready exchanges.

BT hopes to complete the work by the middle of next year, although some have said that the concentration of the exchanges in the south implies that the digital divide is getting wider.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard said “Businesses can really benefit from high speed access, not only for their own premises, but also within the local community, as the internet will become an ever more effective tool for sourcing custom locally.”

Gordon Brown has emphasised the importance of super fast broadband access on a universal scale in the UK during a recent speech.

Mr Brown said that it is not inaccurate to equate the importance of the arrival of broadband to that of domestically available electricity. He also pointed out that it would empower the citizens of the UK, as well as saving billions of pounds of taxpayer’s money in the process.

The most significant use of broadband for Mr Brown is in the formation of government policy and the movement towards a truly democratic society. He said that everyone should be able to have their say on the shape of their communities, as well as on the progress of government on a local and national level.

Mr Brown also expects the use of the internet to simplify the standard bureaucratic exercises that are required when moving house, changing job or dealing with any state-funded service.

There is already evidence that broadband and internet-based technologies have saved the government money, as pensions secretary Yvette Cooper has shown figures proving that one billion pounds has already been saved thanks to making services available on the internet.

People will soon be able to claim the Jobseeker’s Allowance online, as well as getting access to their old age pension, which the government claims will save another hundred million pounds each year.

So far the only barrier between the complete virtualisation of many government services has been the lack of universal broadband coverage. It is hoped that cheap cable broadband, subsidised ADSL technology and mobile broadband will all play a part in reducing this deficit.

Simple Broadband’s Simon Gerrard said “It is good to see politicians paying attention to the increasingly essential nature of high speed broadband.”

It has recently been confirmed that Virgin Media will begin offering its next-generation broadband services to homes and businesses around the UK later this year, with download speeds of up to 100Mbps available to those living in cabled areas.

Virgin Media’s current flagship broadband package, which uses fibre optic technology to provide the most consistent speeds possible, is rated at up to 50Mbps for downloads and so the new service would double this potential.

A spokesperson for Virgin Media said that in some areas it would be able to provide business customers with 200Mbps connections, which would make the majority of BT business broadband packages look a little long in the tooth.

Although Virgin Media is pushing its 100Mbps service, a BT representative said that in fact the cable broadband provider was only just catching up with BT. It is claimed that 100Mbps connections are already enjoyed by BT business customers, with the BT customer base being considerably larger, with 25 per cent more subscribers.

Virgin Media hopes to bring 100Mbps broadband to every one of its customers by 2011, but it aims to offer it in some areas before 2010 is out. No further information as to pricing was provided, but Virgin Media is continuing to expand its operations and increase its annual revenue, with a 3.3 per cent rise in 2009.

Simple Broadband’s Communication Manager Simon Gerrard said “Virgin Media is definitely upping the stakes in both the home and business broadband markets and with 100Mbps and even 200Mbps broadband coming online in the near future, the UK will no longer be languishing in the middle of the international league tables for average download speeds. We can only hope that Virgin Media rolls out its fibre optic networks to encompass even more UK customers”.

A new government target aimed at increasing the number of UK subscribers to broadband has been revealed, with plans to get an additional seven million people connected at high speeds within the next four years.

The Digital Participation Plan was laid out by Stephen Timms, who is the minister at the helm of the government’s Digital Britain initiative. It hopes to reduce the number of people who do not currently have broadband connections by 60 per cent. This is a fairly ambitious plan since that figure currently stands at 12.5 million.

Mr Timms is hoping that the groups who will be helped by the campaign will be those on lower incomes and the elderly, as both are typically ignored by traditional broadband advertising, or put off by the high cost of certain services.

A total of 60 organisations from the public and private sector are set to become involved with the Digital Participation Plan, which should mean that it will have a significant impact around the country. It should make BT broadband options more affordable and attractive to those who have not jumped on the broadband bandwagon.

Access to the internet at broadband speeds is considered to be essential for active participation in the modern era, at both a commercial and cultural level, according to Mr Timms.

The creative and communicative potential offered by broadband is at the heart of the new initiative’s ideology and the initiative will hopefully eradicate the disparity between those who are currently connected and those who are unable to, for whatever reason.

Simple Broadband’s Communication Manager Simon Gerrard said “It is great to see the government getting enthusiastic about broadband, as it is becoming an integral part of our society. BT broadband options are an obvious point at which a potential broadband customer can start to understand the current offerings, although comparing the market for the best deal is the optimum way in which to save money in the longer run.”

A new report suggests that UK businesses will benefit significantly if the government’s targets for blanket broadband coverage are met.

Broadband is now considered to be an essential commodity for home users as well as business customers and although the importance of high speed broadband for businesses is well known, it is equally important that sufficient customers are able to get online and access services in driving revenues.

According to a new report authored by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), UK businesses could net an additional £1.4 billion in ad revenue if every household in the UK is given access to a 2Mbps (minimum) broadband connection, which is the government’s plan.

It is estimated that nearly five per cent of UK citizens are stuck with sluggish dial-up internet connections, whilst many more have no kind of internet access at all in their homes. This means that there is an untapped market out there from which businesses could benefit if universal broadband becomes a reality.

The IPA believes that nearly 37 per cent of consumers would make a purchase online if their internet experience was boosted with a broadband connection, which would make ad space more valuable and drive further revenue for businesses in all sectors.

The IPA’s Nigel Gwilliam noted the degree to which broadband had shaped market trends and influenced the behaviour of consumers online. Mr Gwilliam also said that the new report was the first of its kind, demonstrating that home broadband connectivity was directly linked into the success of businesses.

Simple Broadband’s Communication Manager Simon Gerrard added that “Businesses will benefit hugely from the arrival of universal broadband and the best news is that the opportunities will be relevant to any enterprise from any background with the ambition to make waves online.”

ISP Eclipse Internet has said that it will be allowing consumers to sign up for two new cheap cable broadband packages as of April 2010.

The deals will offer download speeds of up to 40Mbps, coupled with maximum upload speeds of 10Mbps and Eclipse is using the same fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology that BT has introduced for its Infinity range.

FTTC is a hybrid of ADSL and fibre optic technology, with the telephone cabinets in residential streets connected via underground cable, whilst consumer properties will still use copper wiring for the final connection.

For the time being, Eclipse will be packaging its FTTC services in order to appeal to business customers, although there is a high possibility that retail consumers will be able to take advantage of the bundles at a lower price point in the future.

Eclipse’s director Clodagh Murphy said that his firm was taking steps to bring next generation broadband technology to as many of its customers as possible. Mr Murphy said that business customers would be able to run VoIP and video conferencing services with ease and also suggested that setting up VPN connectivity for remote working would be possible for smaller businesses.

The two packages on offer, Eclipse Fibre and Eclipse Fibre Pro, will both have a maximum download speed of 40Mbps, although the Pro version will have a 10Mbps maximum upload speeds as opposed to the 2Mbps offered with the cheaper deal.

There will be an installation fee of £75 to cover, but Eclipse is going out on a limb and guaranteeing its customers a minimum download speed of 12Mbps, which is refreshing.

Simple Broadband’s Communication Manager Simon Gerrard commented “Eclipse Internet is offering a compelling reason to compare business broadband packages, particularly if an enterprise is being restricted by the speed of its current connection.”