After acquiring Tiscali in a takeover last summer, TalkTalk has been planning to discontinue the brand name and migrate all current customers over to a TalkTalk price plan. As a result, TalkTalk has now stopped Tiscali from taking on any new customers and the switchover process is about to get underway.

The merger of the two firms has resulted in the creation of the UK’s largest single home broadband provider, which will now serve over 4.1 million customers around the country. TalkTalk’s parent firm The Carphone Warehouse bought Tiscali for a modest £235 million in May 2009 and it joined a group of other subsidiaries that included fellow broadband provider AOL.

The Carphone Warehouse’s CEO Charles Dunstone said in a statement that he hoped the change-over would be more significant for former Tiscali customers than an alteration to the logo. As such, he has assured the new members of the TalkTalk home broadband family that their tariffs are of equal value to those of existing Tiscali plans.

Mr Dunstone also indicated that the change meant that many former Tiscali customers would now be paying less monthly for their broadband service. A minority may pay more, but cheap cable broadband could be a solution.

Some people will welcome the news, as the TalkTalk broadband brand has undergone quite a metamorphosis over the past few years. At first it was not particularly well regarded, but with a turnaround in customer service quality and a competitive pricing strategy it has now become a trusted brand.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard added that “if ex-Tiscali customers are not keen on staying with TalkTalk after the switchover is complete, they can always migrate their service to an alternative provider with ease. Cheap cable broadband offers an excellent alternative to ADSL for those living in cabled areas and rival ADSL providers will be looking to snap up any customers that may not be enamoured with TalkTalk.”

The Government has been presented with a set of plans by the Local Government Association which are aimed at improving the universal availability of broadband and ensuring that speeds received by all UK citizens are guaranteed by legislation.

The suggestion that home broadband speeds should be defined within the law, giving the average customer certain powers to complain if their broadband connection is unreasonably slow or not as advertised, will be welcomed by most UK customers.

The LGA also said that it was unhappy with the current target of providing at least 2Mbps connections for every home in the UK in time for the 2012 Olympics, telling the Daily Telegraph that the current promise did not show that the government was adequately committed to the continued evolution of home broadband in the UK.

A spokesperson for the group said that broadband had become an important part of daily life for millions of customers around the UK and that support from public and private bodies was necessary to ensure that consumers would not be getting a raw deal in the future when it comes to connection speed and broadband availability.

Broadband has undoubtedly changed society, with benefits such as online banking, video streaming, social networking, blogging and photo sharing allowing communities to develop, relationships to grow, friendships to be maintained and businesses to expand. The spokesperson continued, suggesting that for many, a broadband connection would be life changing, particularly to those living in isolated rural areas where contact with the outside world can sometimes be difficult. With BT broadband options expanding in less densely populated areas of the UK, improvements should continue.

Simon Gerrard, Communication Manager at Simple Broadband added “we are optimistic that home broadband speeds in the UK will continue to rise and should exceed government targets by a significant margin for most customers thanks to new BT broadband options.”

A small village in Wiltshire is playing host to a brand new super-fast wireless broadband trial as part of an exercise by Virgin Media to examine how feasible rural wireless broadband connections are for home users.

Chapel Plaister, near Corsham, has been chosen for the trial which will see Virgin Media team up with telecommunications company Vtesse Networks in order to offer high speed connections to properties within the isolated hamlet.

The trial will lead into a wider set of tests in which the next generation of broadband technologies are being provided to various customers around the country as the deadline for universal broadband availability draws closer.

Vtesse and Virgin Media hope that they will be able to offer customers connections that far exceed the 2Mbps minimum as laid out in the Government’s Digital Britain bill.

The trial in Chapel Plaister will begin in early 2010 and is complemented by a number of other trials taking place in Cornwall in which cheap cable broadband using fibre optic technology is being made available.

Vtesse CEO Aidan Paul commented that the new home broadband technologies being tested by his firm would ideally provide high speed broadband to those living in areas currently bereft of broadband availability.

Mr. Paul made it clear that he is not confident that the 2Mbps target will be reached in rural areas, with land line connections for home users either too expensive or limited by line length. Wireless broadband and the possibility of cheap cable broadband for residents in these areas could be the ideal solutions if industry backing and commercial success are assured, according to Mr. Paul.

Industry regulator Ofcom has revealed figures which show that the price of broadband in the UK is considerably lower than in the majority of other nations around the world.

The recent report analysed figures from various developed nations including Germany and Italy, identifying that the cost of most digital TV, home phone, broadband and mobile services is lower in the UK than anywhere else.

The figures concluded that a family of four in the UK could pay as little as £108 for mobile phones, broadband, home phone and TV packages to cover the entire household. This includes an 8Mbps broadband connection and mobile phones for every member of the family.

Deals covering all of these services in a bundle, which is usually the cheapest way in which families can pay for them, would cost customers in Italy 28 per cent more. In terms of value, Italy is the UK’s closest rival, although the gap in average prices is significant.

Ofcom’s CEO Ed Richards indicated that the low price of broadband in the UK was due to a highly competitive market. With BT broadband deals and bundles competing with comparable packages from Virgin Media and Tiscali, prices are likely to stay low and continue to fall in the UK over the coming months.

Mr Richards also cited innovation within the UK broadband industry as key to its continued success and the wide availability of digital services despite recent criticism of government plans for the future.

In other research from Ofcom, it was discovered that over 35 per cent of all UK households take advantage of BT broadband deals or similar in order to receive additional services including home phone and digital TV from a single provider.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has revealed statistics which place the UK in the bottom third of a list of global nations in terms of average broadband connection speeds.

The UK ranked just 21st out of the list of the world’s 30 most developed nations in terms of broadband speeds and infrastructure, which means fellow EU states including Spain, Greece and Portugal are higher placed.

The OECD said that the results proved that investment in fibre optic technology was key to improving average broadband speeds. Although the UK is ranked 13th in the list when the level of broadband penetration is considered, a majority of UK customers take advantage of BT broadband deals that utilise ADSL technology rather than the faster fibre optic cable connections.

Japan outstripped the UK significantly, topping the charts with a maximum advertised download speed of 1Gbps according to the report. A majority of Japanese broadband customers connect to the internet using fibre optic technology, whilst on average only one in ten broadband customers in the global market have such an opportunity.

Government subsidies are helping nations including the US, Sweden and Norway to install the next-generation of broadband technology. The report claims that health, education, transportation and electricity industries all benefit from faster broadband and that these economic benefits far outweigh the initial cost of rolling out the fibre optic technology.

The OECD report has shown that the UK’s broadband tax and the funds that it generates could well be the best way forward if the government is to fully implement next-generation broadband technology over the coming years. However, critics believe that this process is not occurring quickly enough and there is little doubt that the UK still has some way to go before its average download speeds achieved via standard BT broadband deals can begin to approach those of the top nations.

According to the pre-Budget report released this week by Alistair Darling, the 50p broadband tax levied against all UK customers with a landline connection will help to provide better broadband deals for everyone in the future.

There has been some controversy surrounding the tax, which will be applied to every individual line rather than just to homes and could cost some significantly more than others. However, most experts are in favour of the tax as it will ensure that fibre optic broadband is available to millions more UK residents over the coming years.

Money saving expert Julie Owens commented that although the telecoms companies were working to extend the reach of fibre optic home broadband, governmental backing was needed in order to make sure the new technology reached as many people as possible.

The so-called digital divide which separates certain rural areas of the UK from their urban-dwelling counterparts in terms of broadband speeds and availability should hopefully be closed as part of the new efforts.

The tax is also expected to extend the broadband market place, allowing for many more providers to compete for the custom of those seeking high-speed connections. This will lead in a fall in Tiscali broadband prices as providers who offer older ADSL connections are met with competition from low-cost, high-speed fibre optic services.

Not all providers are entirely enamoured by the planned broadband tax. TalkTalk recently expressed its concerns that the poorest families may find the tax too heavy, causing them to cancel their current broadband service.

There is no doubt that Tiscali broadband prices and indeed the cost of broadband in general, are set to fall lower than ever with help from the broadband tax. It is clearly a price that many are more than willing to pay.

A new strategy to help protect the most sensitive members of society from the potential threats inherent online has been launched by the Government.

Recent government statistics revealed that 99 per cent of all children aged between 8 and 17 had access to the internet and of that grouping just under a 5th claim to have been exposed to indecent or inappropriate material on the internet.

In order to combat fears of online safety for young broadband users, the UK Council for Child Internet Safety has set down the new guidelines as part of the Green Cross Code for internet protection.

A three-pronged recommendation, called the Digital Code of Zip It, Block It, Flag It, is key to helping parents have confidence that the youngest members of their family will avoid coming to harm whilst online.

This code involves making sure that children do not divulge personal information to strangers, do not open suspicious email messages and if they do come into contact with inappropriate material or relationships online that the children feel able to tell a responsible adult about it.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke about the new scheme, identifying the importance of the internet in the education and entertainment of the younger generation. Mr Brown said that the internet use had to be properly supervised to ensure that the online world is as safe as the real world.

There are many BT broadband options which include parental blocks, preventing children from accessing inappropriate sites and other providers such as TalkTalk offer similar services to help promote and enable youngsters to enjoy broadband internet connections in their own homes whilst staying safe. Adults will now need to learn as much about broadband as their children.

Millions of pounds are being invested in the broadband infrastructure for Northern Ireland in order to offer much faster connections to home and business broadband customers around the country.

A total of over £48 million will be injected into the industry over the next year and a half, with the promise of improved speeds for both rural and urban customers.

Businesses who want to take advantage of high speed connections are in luck, as the plans include the provision of a 10Mbps minimum download speed for urban businesses, whilst a 2Mbps minimum is expected for rural businesses.

Completion of the improvements is targeted for mid-2011 and half of the money is being invested by British Telecom after it won the contract.

The remaining money is being provided from various public sector sources, including some from the European Union.

A spokesperson for the government said on announcing the plans that the money would not only enable faster broadband for all residents of Northern Ireland, regardless as to their location, but would also create up to 1000 new jobs as a result of the improved broadband infrastructure.

Cheap cable broadband using fibre optic technology will be key to the success of the investment scheme, although 166 telephone exchanges are being upgraded and various wireless broadband hotspots are also going to allow for wider coverage.

Many are pleased that the investment will help those in rural areas, where broadband connections are traditionally sluggish or non-existent. The inclusive nature of the plans is being heralded as a step in the right direction that other areas of the UK would do well to follow if growth and productivity are to be improved.

BT Chief Executive Ian Livingston said that cheap cable broadband provided using fibre optic technology would continue to be integral to increased speeds and wider availability of broadband in the future.

When it emerged at the beginning of the week that BT Chairman Sir Michael Rake was the only member of his small village community to have access to a high speed broadband connection, cries of preferential treatment and foul play were heard.

Residents of Hambleden in Oxfordshire were told that Sir Michael was trialling a new service that could be part of the various BT broadband deals in the future and that it was not possible to provide the rest of the properties with a similar service.

One resident said that he had been waiting for broadband to arrive for 5 years, but Sir Michael had been given access to broadband after living in the village for just 12 months. The resident went on to say that BT had told him it would cost nearly £70,000 to connect his own home up to a high speed broadband connection.

This incident is indicative of the wider problems facing those living in isolated communities. The current ADSL technology cannot supply homes that are a long way from their local telephone exchanges and installing fibre optic broadband requires a significant level of investment, which most believe is not met by the demand for broadband in rural areas.

Millions of UK homes are in the same position, although government funding and the broadband tax could help alleviate the situation in the coming years. However, universal broadband availability is still a long way off and the disheartening news received by Hambleden residents was met with a similar sense of helplessness by rural residents around the UK.

BT customers living in urban areas have less to be glum about. The next generation of Broadband Enabling Technology (BET) which Sir Michael is apparently trialling will be set to benefit town and city dwellers first and upcoming BT broadband deals should soon allow far more people to connect at high speeds in these areas.

New plans have been unveiled by Virgin Media to offer the next generation of set top box technology. Virgin currently provides high speed fibre optic broadband and digital TV services for close to 10 million households in the UK.

It emerged that Virgin Media would be partnering with US firm TiVo, a name that has become synonymous with digital personal video recording in the United States, in order to provide a set top box which could record live television as well as offering broadband internet on customers’ televisions.

There are currently Virgin Media and BT Broadband options which allow for the combination of a digital TV package with a high speed connection, although no provider has yet managed to offer full internet access via a set top box.

Users will be able to take advantage of the high speed broadband connection to access a much wider variety of on-demand video content from various sources, expanding on the current Virgin Media offerings.

Virgin Media Chief Exec Neil Berkett said that his company was aiming to push ahead with the development of the technology in order to gain an early advantage in the next generation of subscription TV.

Although there has been no official release date for the new set top box and its associated services, a source at Virgin Media has confirmed that these will both become available some time in 2010.

Virgin Media is not the only home broadband provider to be partnering in anticipation of a more integrated future for television and the internet. It is likely that BT Broadband options which may include on-demand video services from the BBC, currently codenamed Project Canvas, could also be emerging with support from a new set top box in the near future.