3 Price Hikes in 2 Years for BT Customers

BT’s residential customers are facing their third price rise in the space of two years this December.

Call charges will rise by 5% on the 3^rd December 2011, following a 10% rise one year ago and another 9% rise in April this year.  Customers will find UK landline calls will go up from 7.6p a minute to 7.95p a minute. Line rental prices are also set to rise.  Calls to mobiles will stay the same although there is no guarantee that this will remain the same next year. 

"A report from Ofcom shows the UK has lower prices than the USA, Spain, Germany, France and Italy. The UK market is highly competitive," a BT spokesman said.

However, following the energy price hikes last month, Michael Phillips, product director at price comparison website Homephonechoices.co.uk has responded on behalf of consumers everywhere: "While BT's price increases of 5% or less may be in line with inflation, it will prove very unpopular with households who are already feeling the pinch.”

Looking to save money on your business phone bills?  Talk to us about a free analysis. 

Who-are-We’s Gift to London

Huawei, (pronounced who-are-we), is a Chinese Telecoms giant who has hit the headlines this week because they have offered to install a mobile phone network on the London Underground in time for the 2012 Olympics:  Free of charge.

The gesture is said to be a gift from one Olympic nation to another according to the Sunday Times and is said to be worth about £50 million.  The company has offered to install transmitters along the ceilings of the tunnels, and will earn any future income from the maintenance of the equipment.  It has been confirmed by Transport for London that work has begun on wiring up the Underground with mobile phone transmitters, but there has been no confirmation of Huawei’s involvement.  

Microsoft and Nokia Join Forces

Following earlier concerns this week that Nokia were in trouble following a leaked memo from Stephen Elop, Chief Executive of the mobile company, Nokia staff are now facing a new challenge.

Nokia has joined forces with Microsoft in an attempt to regain lost ground on market leaders iPhone and other Android-operated devices.  The deal means that Nokia’s existing operating systems will be replaced with the Windows Phone 7 operating system for its smartphones, the company has said.

Windows Phone 7, whilst receiving much critical acclaim, has remained quite a small market player to date.  It has been rumored that Mr. Elop opted to use Windows over the Google Android Operating System because he feels more comfortable with the company as that is where he worked before his move to Nokia. 

The move does mean that Nokia employees across the world will be facing inevitable job losses.  As with all coalitions, the future is unknown, but this collaboration has the potential to shape the future of the industry.  

2011 Promises the introduction of Common Charger

2011 looks to be the year that the Common Charger will be introduced to the mobile phone market as technical specifications for chargers drawn up by the European Commission have won the backing of 14 phone firms.

The EU said many Europeans resented the inconvenience incompatible chargers caused and wanted to be able to use chargers for different smartphones.  The response is a design based around micro-USB technology and excitingly, could see the end of proprietary power ports on handsets.

Nokia, Research In Motion, Apple and Samsung are amongst the companies have pledged to make chargers to the common standard, and they are expected to be available early this year.

Currently, the specifications only cover chargers for smartphones because, these are likely to be the most widely used type of phone in Europe within the next two years according to the Commission.  

Snow Ready

Last December saw temperatures in the UK drop to almost record breaking lows, this year we seem to have started a month earlier, with 2010 recording the coldest November night in Britain since 1985. 

Travel conditions have become perilous, with road closures, rail cancellations and air disruption rife.  In Scotland, Wales and parts of Northern England, drivers are being asked to stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary to travel.  Widespread School closures are causing even more havoc up and down the country due to burst water pipes and broken boilers. 

Inevitably, this has a direct affect on day to day business, as employers can not get to work, or have to stay at home unexpectedly to look after the kids.  Today, businesses can take steps to improve their communication and information technology infrastructures to buffer the effect of an outbreak on their daily operations.  This is not necessarily as complicated or expensive as it sounds. 

One of these steps is switching to a business VoIP service, which allows employees full and secure access to the business communications network of their company from their homes. The flexibility and features of this service makes it suitable for all types of organisations, but in particular those that are multi-sited. It allows for employees to be just as efficient when they are outside of the office, as they are in the office. 

To overcome the effects of a national crisis, businesses need to make sure that they have a flexible working policy in place to avoid unexpected downtime, and ensure employees that can’t make it into work can continue working productively from home, or indeed wherever they are.

Satellite Broadband UPDATE

According to Avanti Communications, the Ariane 5 rocket, carrying HYLAS 1, entered orbit precisely on schedule after a “perfect” launch at 18:39 GMT on 26^th November 2010.  The HYLAS spacecraft is designed to deliver dedicated broadband services to remote locations where it is currently not possible to get a fast internet connection. 

A signal from the satellite was picked up almost right away at an antenna sited in India. Controllers will now spend a few weeks positioning the spacecraft correctly in the sky and checking out onboard systems.  HYLAS 1 is the first superfast broadband satellite launched in Europe, Avanti’s second satellite is fully funded and will launch in 2012.

Following Avanti’s success on Friday, it seems that there is now a race to space as it was announced on Monday morning that the financing has been secured for one of the most ambitious commercial space projects of the decade.


O3b Networks, based in Jersey, has raised $1.2bn (£700m) for a series of satellites to support super-fast broadband connections to Africa and other emerging markets.  The spacecraft will act as backhaul, linking the traffic of local telecoms and internet service providers to the global fibre infrastructure.  The first platforms will be ready to go into orbit in the first half of 2013.

The First Data Protection Fines have been issued

Commissioner Christopher Graham was granted the authority to serve financial penalties for data protection breaches in April of this year. Now, Hertfordshire County Council and a private company based in Sheffield are among the first to be issued with fines.



The Council have been fined £100,000 for mistakenly faxing details of a child sex abuse case to a member of the public. A4e was fined £60,000 for accidently losing an unencrypted laptop with the details of thousands of people.


Mr Graham admitted the theft of the laptop was "less shocking" than the council's security breaches but added: "These first monetary penalties send a strong message to all organisations handling personal information - get it wrong and you do substantial harm to individuals and the reputation of your business. You could also be fined up to half a million pounds."


Both organisations have issued statements apologising for their mistakes and offering explanations as to why they failings occurred.

4G Airwaves Auction set for 2012

Ofcom's chief executive Ed Richards has laid out the new timetable for the rollout of next-generation mobile services in the UK, at the FT World Telecoms Conference.



The first half of 2012 will see the airwaves that enable 4G networks being auctioned off to mobile operators. The original auction was earmarked for 2009 but was delayed because of legal action by mobile firms such as O2 and Vodafone.


The auction will see two chunks of the spectrum sold off - the 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands. Due to the digital TV switchover, the 800MHz slice has been freed up, which allows mobile signals to travel over greater distances, making it invaluable in the search to find ways of bringing broadband to rural areas.


Due to the litigation last year we are slightly behind other countries in offering services. Germany, for example, auctioned off its digital dividend spectrum and others are planning to do so very soon.

Britain’s Broadband Blackspots and BT’s response

Brigg, Ancaster, and Grantham are all listed as broadband blackspots in research conducted by broadband comparison website Top10. All three areas in Lincolnshire expect to receive less than 2Mbps. Farningham in Kent was labelled as the worst broadband blackspot in Britain.



For the last few months, BT has been running a project which expires at the end of December to identify the country’s demand for fast broadband. More than 200,000 votes have already been cast across the UK highlighting the areas of greatest demand as BT begins its roll-out of fibre-optic technology.


Caxton in Cambridgeshire and Malvern in Worcestershire will be among the first to benefit from a "vote for fibre" scheme launched by BT as they are the first to have registered more than 1,000 votes. Despite being first though, the two may not be upgraded until early 2012, BT has stated.


The list insinuates a north/south speed divide in broadband blackspots with Farningham and the market town of Holsworthy in Devon the only locations south of London that are on a list.


The government has pledged to offer every home a minimum broadband speed of 2Mbps by 2015, three years later than the date promised by Labour.

Lifetime award for the first laptop designer

British designer, Bill Moggridge, has been given a lifetime achievement award by the Duke of Edinburgh. He topped a list of famous nominees, including fashion designer Dame Viviene Westwood and the creator of the London 2012 Aquatics Centre.



In the early 1980’s Mr. Moggridge designed The Grid Compass computer which is widely credited as the fore-runner for the modern laptop. The machine went on sale in 1982 and had its own operating system called Grid-OS. It’s price meant that its market was limited to specialist buyers such as the US government.


In the same decade, it was used on the space shuttle, offering the astronauts a navigational programme when they were out of reach of earth-bound navigation tools.


Whilst Mr. Moggridge was “astonished” to have received the award, the jury felt his work had been central to how design helped people understand and use technology.


The Prince Philip Designers Prize is Britain's longest-running design award, and was set up by the Duke of Edinburgh in 1959 to encourage entrepreneurship. It is awarded annually to recognise a lifetime contribution to design.

Get a grip over UK travel congestion

So far, this year’s strikes have affected the trains, the London Underground and air travel, but looking at figures out on the 3rd November, car travel is not a great option either.



According to the figures, Wednesday is the worst day for traffic jams with roads more congested in Britain than any other day of the week. Compared to other European countries we do not perform well either, with UK drivers spending more time in traffic then drivers in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and Holland.


The index from traffic information company INRIX, also found that whilst Wednesday was found to be the worst overall for congestion, Monday is the worst for morning congestion. In fact, the worst commuting hour for drivers is 8am to 9am on Mondays, with Friday having the worst evening traffic. The worst traffic bottleneck is a section of the M5 heading towards the M6 at Birmingham, where on a Friday, between 5pm and 6pm, the average speed is only 8mph.


Manchester drivers suffer from jams the most, spending an average of 72 hours a year stuck in traffic, the research suggests.


Work is a core component of a healthy life, but so is a work-life balance. Whatever day you travel on, or whether you are from the North or the South, East or West, there is now technology available that can help staff achieve just that.


Talk to Adodo to find out how 0800 092 1471

The World's New Supercomputer

China's Tianhe-1A (Milky Way) has knocked America's XT5 Jaguar off the world’s Supercomputer top spot.

The Jaguar, based at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee can only carry out a mere 1.75 petaflops per second. Each petaflop is the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations per second. In comparison the Milky Way is capable of carrying out more than 2.5 thousand trillion calculations a second, making it 47% faster.


To reach such high speeds the machine draws on more than 7,000 graphics processors and 14,000 Intel chips. The machine houses its processors in more than 100 fridge-sized cabinets and together these weigh more than 155 tonnes.


The claim to be the fastest machine on the planet has been ratified by the Top 500 Organisation which maintains a list of the most powerful machines.

iPads only for the rich

A Nielsen study suggests that Tablet computers are only owned by a high-earning minority.

The study found that only 4% of the 5,000 quizzed own iPads, compared to 6% for e-book readers and 25% for smartphones.



Interestingly it also found that users were not inclined to download any extra programmes onto the device, with only 9% of the iPad owners quizzed admitting to doing it. Of those that had bought apps, games, books and music were the most popular extras.


The research also revealed that iPad owners tend to be younger, with 63% of them under 35 years old, and nearly two-thirds being male.

An essential marketing product for all

In tough times marketing budgets are often hit first which is why Nottingham-based reseller Tim Glynn is hoping industry peers will pick up on a new idea to help generate awareness and sales. 

It’s an online tool called VBook which allows resellers to create a page turning brochure, sales leaflet or newsletter for a fraction of the time and cost it would take to produce a printed version.  Once produced the VBook can be emailed to clients and prospects.  It is also a useful awareness raiser for charity promotions. 

“As a small business I can see many uses,” Said Glynn.  “It also fits in with our Adodo Community initiative raising money for charities and good causes.”  You can trial the VBook using this link:  My VBook

Wi-Fi for ‘Glampers’

With more people opting to holiday in the UK this year, there has been a significant rise in ‘glamping’, also known as glamorous camping.

This has led to an massive rise in Wi-Fi usage at UK holiday sites. According to figures released by BT Openzone, this explosion of Wi-Fi usage took the figures up 350% in the first two weeks of the summer holidays.

During the unpredictable summer weather it is thought that holiday-makers turned to there iPhones, iPads and other smartphones for inspiration and entertainment.

BT’s Broadband milestone

Fifteen million homes and small businesses are now accessing broadband over BT’s network as the telecoms giant reached a significant milestone last month. 

In August 2002 BT had approximately 200,000 broadband connections, which means that they have added 14.8 million in the last eight years.  If you do the maths, that equates to more than 5,000 new broadband connections a day.

“Auto-Tune” for Fibre Optic Technology

The way that Data currently operates is fraught with problems, relating to capacity and noise imperfections. However, this week an EU-funded team has demonstrated a prototype device that can "clean up" a noisy data signal and re-transmit it with fuller capacity.

Data is sent as a sequence of bits coded into the properties of a light beam piped down an optical fibre, so understandably these bits can become distorted over great lengths of fibre.


Two different kinds of phase noise can be the cause of this making the data unintelligible; the first being imperfections in reproducing exactly when different parts of the light signal arrive. The second because of "cross-talk", signals sent down a fibre that influence one another. Existing electronics can overcome this but the result is a reduced data capacity.


There is also a foreseeable problem due to the growth in bandwidth-hungry applications such as YouTube and iPlayer that will eventually stretch the limits of long-distance fibre links.


The prototype device demonstrated by the team makes use of advances both in optical fibre technology and in lasers, which are used to "lock on" to the signal and distinguish it from noise.


The output signal is returned to its sharp-edged nature at the precise digital levels that are needed; it is, in one sense, like a fibre-optic version of the auto-tune software that "cleans up" singers' voices.


It was stressed that the device was a laboratory demonstration, and some way from industrial application - but that similar technology would become essential in a world where bandwidth needs are always on the rise.

Bundling is the way forward

Believe it or not whilst we are doing more with technology, it is now costing us less. For the fifth year in a row spending on communications services has decreased.

The average households monthly spend on communication services has fallen 1.7 per cent over the past year to £91.24, as more people choose to buy their services in discounted bundles.


It seems the majority of households and businesses are now turning to one supplier for two or more of their services in order to reduce their costs. In the past, people have been reluctant to put ‘all their eggs into one basket’, whereas now it is the sensible way to save money.


Seventy per cent of people with a bundle said that the main reason for taking a bundle was because it was cheaper.

Eat, Sleep, Media!

The average person in the UK spends 15hours 45mins awake per day. Of this time, according to Ofcom’s annual Communications Market Report, the average person spends seven hours and five minutes "engaging in media and communications activities".



The Report that looks into the UK's TV, radio, telecoms and internet industries also shows that we're ‘media multi-tasking’ more than ever before.


Another buzz phrase to add to your technology dictionary, ‘Media Multi-Tasking’, meaning, for example, making a phone call whilst surfing the internet.


As you would expect the group that is most likely to be found doing more than one media related activity at a time is the 16-24 year olds. 52% in fact of that particular age group participates in simultaneous media activity. Compare this to the over 55 age group and that figure slips to 22%.


Smartphones are one of the biggest catalysts for the developing world of multi-tasking. Their growing popularity is rapidly changing the way in which we use our mobiles and increasing our overall use of communications.