VoIP News: July 2009

There was a year-on-year fall of almost 17 per cent in the number of complaints against internet service providers (ISPs) between January and June this year, new figures reveal. Just under 6,260 people lodged complaints about ISPs with the advice service Consumer Direct, meaning internet providers fell to the bottom of the top ten list of the companies receiving the most complaints in the UK. More people now consider broadband access to be a utility as important to them as water or electricity and a fast connection can enable efficient usage of VoIP hardware, while facilitating quicker media downloads from the internet.

The UK should target a faster baseline broadband connection speed than the two megabits-per-second (Mbps) figure outlined in the recent Digital Britain report, says Broadband Genie. According to the broadband comparison website, the report soon to be issued by the commons business and enterprise committee evaluating the figure should find the 2Mbps target lacks ambition and will have little benefit for web users.

Web users based in rural communities have the option of facilitating their own access to high-speed fibre optic networks, according to an expert comparison site. Chris Marling, editor at Broadband Genie, said that rural residents in the UK could follow the example of their counterparts in countries like Norway and the Netherlands, some of whom have dug trenches on their land to get faster access to fibre networks.

Broadband customers in Northern Ireland may have the best use of VoIP hardware as they have the fastest average connection speeds in the UK, a new report has revealed. New figures from broadband industry regulator Ofcom show that of all the web users in the UK who are subscribed to a service with a speed of up to eight megabits per second (Mbps), customers in Northern Ireland enjoy the highest actual average speeds of 4.

Investing in high-speed broadband networks in the UK could be especially vital for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help Britain remain competitive. Through the Digital Britain report, the government has committed to making sure every UK home has a connection of two megabits per second (Mbps) by 2012, but internet service providers face pressure to invest in technology such as fibre optic cabling to deliver speeds of 100Mbps, reports Financial Mail.