Posts by King TuT

Virgin Media in talks with power firms to expand network

Next door neighbour.

VM's database is useless, they just need to get a spotter out.

Hitachi launches Blu-Ray-SSD hybrid drive

Virgin Media

I have no issues so far with my 50Mb broadband, no limits either at the moment.

Virgin Media 'overwhelmed' by broadband customers fleeing BT

Virgin

Note: Virgin Media is still NTL:Telewest, they just pay an annual fee to use the Virgin name and RB is a small shareholder in the company, it is still the NTL:Telewest of old running the show. Plus their phone service is a big rip-off.

BT claims UK broadband boost breakthrough

RE: wtf? By Anonymous Coward

The wiring up to the test socket is BT's responsibility - you aren't meant to mess with. You are allowed to replace the front panel - the part the connects into the test socket and allows you to add your own extension wiring.

Phones

It's only really old phones and the odd made for UK use only phone that still require the bell wire, virtually all phones of the last several years have their own ringing circuit.

Ofcom considers termination charges

Landline No & ATMs

RE: Needing a landline contact number when without landline, for those who are able to drop the landline due to their broadband being cable for example, you can simply get a phone number from Sipgate that's a regular number, have it set to voicemail at all times or just use it as a VoIP line to receive calls.

As for ATMs not charging customers for using other banks for long, I think you are confused they charged customers for not using their own bank or later a few banks in a group for years and year and years, it wasn't that long ago they actually dropped the charges, granted they wanted to reintroduce them, but the had been charging for many times longer than they haven't.

EU abolishes the acre

Good riddance.

Don't know anyone who can visual the size on an acre, we're better off with the hectare makes much more sense.

Philip Kroker: In the UK ovens have been in degrees C for as long as I remember, surprised with Canada being behind there.

Metric, come on let our children have a system that makes sense.

As for those who go on about British measures, well pounds and ounces came from France and distances from Italy.

1864 - Weights and Measures Act legalises metric units only for 'contracts and dealings'.

1896 - Weights and Measures (Metric System) Act legalises metric system for all purposes, but does not make it compulsory.

1904 - House of Lords votes for compulsory change to metric system, but Bill fails in House of Commons.

1965 - At the request of industry. President of Board of Trade announces that the metric system will be adopted with a target of completion within 10 years (i.e. 1975). Commonwealth and other countries decide to follow Britain's example.

Virgin Media and BPI join forces to attack illegal filesharing

P2P

Virgin Media are planing to throttle P2P soon also.

MP launches ten minute rule bill on in-UK roaming

Don't rely on it.

"You can also make emergency calls on any network already, regardless of subscription, so not a valid argument either"

Don't rely on it!

In the UK it is not possible to call emergency services unless you have a working SIM and coverage on your own network, there is no home-country roaming not even for emergency calls. So if you are for example a T-Mobile customer and there is no T-Mobile coverage, but there is Orange and O2 coverage you will still not be able to made emergency calls.

The GSM spec allows it, however it's not used in the UK.

Your mobile phone might say SOS Calls Only or Emergency Calls Only - however that is a default message on some phone when not in signal because they probably think most people will be in a country that allows emergency calls to be made on other networks when they don't have coverage on their own.

Sadly many people think they can make such calls - please ensure you let as many people know it is not the case as you wouldn't want someone to rely on it and then come unstuck.

Skype blames eBay for killing 'our innovation buzz'

Call costs

Skype are one of the dearer VoIP providers for when you need to call landlines or mobiles, they even charge for options that are free with most other providers.

There are many of the various Betamax VoIP services you could use, Sipgate, OrbTalk and many many others, all cheaper than Skype.

With a BT line, you don't have to use BT for calls, you can have these automatically routed elsewhere or use indirect carriers with an access code. Only BT (and Kingston in their area are forced to allow cheap call access).

So you could pay BT the £10.50 line rental (paperless and DD) get caller display for free via BT Privacy (though a couple of calls going via BT required for this, if calls automatically going elsewhere dial 1280 to hop back onto BT).

For £0.00 (Yes - nothing) per month go with Primus on Primus Saver 2, and you get inclusive evening and weekend calls, each call up to 90 mins, after 90 mins either hang up and redial or pay 1p/min after the 90 mins. Daytime rate doesn't start until 08:00 so 2 more hours each weekday of inclusive calls.

You can add on for free Penny Mobile which gives you calls to UK mobiles for 20p for up to 20 mins.

Primus do offer line rental too, but never wise to move line rental away from BT as mentioned above only BT are forced to allow you to use low cost carriers, others can and do block access.

Then use Call 18185 for other calls, UK landline calls are 5p per call, international from 0.5p and low cost calls to UK mobiles.

VoIP is great when you can dump the landline - like I did for 2.5 years - cable broadband so no phone line required, spent £6 on VoIP + cost of SIP ATA in all that time and that was making numerous calls each day, got many months of free calls, then using completely free 'bonus' credit used that to top up my Betamax VoIP account which I have a local number with and also use Sipgate. Only now recently have a landline again as I was given free install, free line rental and free calls package for as long as I keep my heavily discounted TV and broadband package.

Using the right VoIP provider can save you plenty of money, being able to dump the landline and still use VoIP will save you a lot more.

If you are a light phone use then having a VoIP provider like Sipgate or OrbTalk where there is no monthly fee and you just pay for the calls made and being with cable for broadband is going to work out a lot cheaper than having to pay £10.50 per month to BT or whoever and call charges on top.

For Primus: www.planet-talk.co.uk/SaverProducts.aspx?source=saver

For Call 18185: www.18185.co.uk

ISP data deal with former 'spyware' boss triggers privacy fears

It's the spying

Ads can be blocked. However even if you opt out your webpages are still going through their system and looked at.

Want faster broadband soon? Move to Kent, says BT

RE: Gas Pipes

No, not all gas pipes are owned by Transco (Now called NationalGrid UK), yes the vast majority are, but since 1995 there have been Independent Gas Transporters (IGTs), you'll usually find developers use IGTs to connect homes up to mains gas instead of Transco as they offer lower rates. However the IGTs charge more for the gas to go through their pipes, so you usually have to pay more for your gas if you are connected via an IGT instead of NationGrid UK (Transco).

Virgin Media eases off bandwidth throttling

300mb

Stu Reeves, I'm sure it's quite possible for you to get the 300 millibits within 4 hours you posted about. mb=millibits, MB=Megabytes.

Skype faces 020 7870 cut-off

VoIP

Yes, Skype has always been a kids toy, a toy town service.

There's plenty of VoIP providers out there, some offering at no charge a local incoming number.

http://backsla.sh/betamax lists many of the Betamax services, offers slightly different rates and different free destinations. There is also a way of getting a local UK number for free and pointing at the service.

http://www.voipbusterpro.com/en

http://www.sipgate.co.uk

http://www.orbtalk.co.uk

http://www.voiptalk.org/reallyvoip

http://www.draytel.org

http://www.voipfone.co.uk

http://www.voip.co.uk

http://www.coms.com/

http://www.gradwell.com/voip

A few listed at: http://www.myvoipprovider.com/Directory/VoIP_Provider_Directory/VoIP_Providers/UK_-_VoIP_Providers/page1/