After announcing intentions to merge last year, Orange and T-Mobile will now be marketed under the Everything Everywhere brand, although the two will retain their own distinct iconography and advertising.

Everything Everywhere will make an appearance in promotional material from both of the providers and it is believed that T-Mobile will begin to offer home and business customers the chance to sign up to fixed line broadband services. This is because it can now benefit from Orange’s network and expertise in a market of which it has little direct knowledge.

Coalitions seem to be flavour of the week and Everything Everywhere will result in other new services which may be of interest to business broadband users, including the creation of a far wider network of Wi-Fi hotspots in key areas. This would allow T-Mobile and Orange business connections to compete with BT business broadband packages, offering greater coverage whenever people need to get online when away from the office.

The merger gives T-Mobile and Orange the largest mobile broadband network in the UK, with more masts and more inclusive accessibility than any other firm. Everything Everywhere will be opening 100 new retail stores to complement the 700 or so existing locations, with the intention of educating potential customers as to the latest broadband and mobile products.

Orange, O2 and Vodafone have offered fixed line broadband to customers in the past, but now T-Mobile will be able to join in, although it looks as though it could be many months before the first broadband packages appear.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard said “There were concerns that the Orange and T-Mobile merger would give them an unfair advantage, but the winner here will be the customer, because more competition in the broadband market means lower prices and better service.”

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.”

TalkTalk, one of the UK’s largest broadband providers, has said that it will be working to extend the availability of its flagship internet packages to more consumers around the country.

TalkTalk currently offers its basic services to about 80 per cent of the country, which tops its closest rival O2’s 70 per cent availability in UK households. Now TalkTalk says that it will be rolling out its coverage to make sure that 90 per cent of the nation can choose its broadband.

In a press release, TalkTalk said that the 1700 unbundled exchanges that it operates in the UK would be growing to 2000 over the next year. It also said that the speeds of its broadband service would be rising in order to meet the public appetite for data, which experts say is increasing by 50 per cent a year.

TalkTalk is currently trialling its own fibre optic service using the same Infinity network that is bringing about BT broadband deals that have a maximum download speed of 40Mbps. This is the fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) technology that has been implemented in a number of areas to date and it is, as yet, available in only a limited number of locations.

By next spring BT is hoping to bring high speed ADSL2+ broadband to about 20 million UK customers, which is a more ambitious plan than many of its main provider rivals, although its monopoly over the UK’s broadband infrastructure allows it to develop technologies and services at its own pace.

TalkTalk is proving to be a serious contender in the UK broadband provider market, as its recent acquisitions of smaller firms such as AOL and Tiscali have significantly increased its user base and allowed it to gain market share from established rivals.

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.”

The upcoming general election could be decided on the merits of the various parties’ broadband plans according to experts.

The Conservative party is attempting to avoid a hung parliament, but the issue of rural broadband availability might scupper its bid for leadership as voters in the more isolated regions could be left out under its current strategies.

Analyst firm Point Topic has pointed out that the Conservative heartland is traditionally located in rural communities and that members of these constituencies will be hit the hardest if the party is elected.

This conclusion has been reached because Labour’s proposed broadband tax is something that the Tories are planning to scrap. This tax would be used to fund the expansion of broadband to areas in which current coverage is limited and speeds are inadequate.

By opposing the tax, Tories could risk alienating their core supporters, leaving them in a rather difficult situation.

Researchers worked out that of the 253 constituencies which are currently suffering from minimal broadband availability, the Conservatives could end up in control of up to 138 after the election.

The Conservatives had planned on investment being sourced from within the telecoms industry, with backing from big business. If this was possible, the tax would become redundant, but it looks as though the necessary funds will require some public money to meet the figures necessary to provide truly universal broadband access.

Simple Broadband’s Communications Manager Simon Gerrard said “All political parties will be looking hard at the broadband market in order to assess the kinds of services that UK citizens will need over the coming decade. Broadband is an essential commodity in the eyes of many and those areas which cannot be serviced with BT broadband deals will not want to miss out.”

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.”

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.”

As of January 25th 2010, new and existing BT Total Broadband customers in an enabled exchange area will be eligible for the up to 40Mb service. This will be one of the fastest broadband services available to customers in the UK.

More good news for BT customers is the price. They are charging as little as £19.99 per month for the 40Mb service, which is more than £7/month cheaper than Virgin Media’s high speed service. However, in balanced against that, the Virgin Media offer, it is 10Mb faster than BT, at 50Mb, and Virgin Media are also very reliable with their speed – if you pay for 50Mb, you will get very close to 50Mb nearly all the time. It remains to be seen if BT will be able to get close to the promised 40Mb with such regularity.

One factor that is definitely in BT Broadband’s favour is their upload speed. At 10Mb upload speed, it does put most of it’s rivals to shame, up to 6 times faster than Virgin Media. It is always worth remembering though, the advertised “up to” speed and the actual speed you get can vary greatly with BT.

By the end of 2010, BT are estimating that 4,000,000 homes and businesses will have access to this new faster service, and they expect many to take advantage. With online gaming on the up, a high speed connection is becoming a “must” for many households with teenagers, making their gameplay smoother, and this speed increase could even lead to a further boom in the online gaming sector.

It appears that the average UK broadband customer is now far more in tune with the technology that powers their internet connection and many are able to recite on demand the download speed they can achieve in their own homes.

As a result, experts believe that more people are also cottoning on to the benefits offered by super fast broadband connections.

Edd Dawson, who edits a leading UK broadband website, has spoken out about the increasing number of people taking broadband speed tests to assess the speed of their current connections. He believes that many more people are seeking deals based on the download speed alone.

Mr Dawson also revealed that broadband customers are extremely receptive to new information that can help them to speed up their current connection. With cheap cable broadband coming from BT and the competition that this will bring to the market, high speed connections are likely to become an even hotter topic in the future.

Mr Dawson said that the largest factor influencing the increased interest in faster download speeds was the growing availability of quality media content online. With the BBC’s iPlayer and other video streaming services including YouTube now offering broadcasts in high definition, a faster connection is becoming ever more desirable. Video chatting and VoIP voice calls also require a higher connection speed and houses with multiple users going online can ensure optimal performance by comparing providers based upon their download speeds.

With common ADSL broadband connections still languishing with average connection speeds of 4Mbps or lower, cheap cable broadband offering faster connections on a more consistent basis is becoming more attractive.

Mr Dawson has added his opinions to the discussion generated by BT’s announcement of its own 40Mbps fibre optic cable connections, which will be going live in the near future.

The current line up of BT broadband deals has just seen a super fast addition in the form of the first of its fibre-to-the-cabinet (FTTC) connections, offering up to 40Mbps download speeds and 10Mbps upload speeds.

After trials took place in London and Glasgow, BT has begun to roll out its new fibre optic technology that will still rely on copper telephone wiring for the last mile of provision, but will see fibre optic connections linking the cabinets servicing streets in the UK to the main broadband network.

By 2011 BT plans to make FTTC available to 4 million homes around the UK and the 40Mbps is a significant improvement over the current maximum download speed of 20Mbps that BT offers.

These new fibre optic BT broadband deals are set to cost from £19.99 a month with an 18 month contract, thus requiring longer commitment than other packages on offer. There will also be an installation fee, but BT is willing to waive this if you sign up for a more expensive and comprehensive monthly package.

BT has said that its new fibre services will provide better opportunities for houses with multiple internet users trying to get online simultaneously and will also offer faster downloads and higher quality video streaming.

The cheapest fibre broadband deal from BT will come with a 20GB monthly data allowance, although costlier packages will have unlimited downloads coupled with a fair use policy to watch out for.

BT will not be the only provider offering deals that use the FTTC technology, as it will be offered to third party wholesalers to resell, as is currently the case with ADSL broadband.

Simon Gerrard, Simple Broadband’s Communication Manager noted that “this will produce competition within the market that will ensure that consumers will be able to obtain the best possible deals on next-generation broadband connections”.