We provide information to help you reduce costs and do more with your telecoms in the office and at home The following is an overview of what this site will contain: Suppliers Mobiles Contract Mobiles Mobile Broadband and Internet Selling Mobiles Mobile Coverage Mobile Tracking Business Telecoms Phone Systems Landlines T1 and Leased Lines ISDN ADSL Business broadband VPN Broadband Broadband speed and testing Wireless broadband Broadband Dongles Broadband Routers Broadband Coverage Unlimited Broadband Internet Protection and Security Home Phones and Accessories VoIP Voice Over [...]

If you are a BT customer, be on your guard! BT is warning customers about a series of phone scams involving people claiming to be calling from the company. If you are targeted, the scammers will call you and warn that your account is in arrears. They then ask for bank or credit card details to settle the account. If you ask for proof or refuse to pay, the fraudsters then offer to prove who they are by disconnecting the phone line then and there. [...]

Broadband Speeds in the UK Ofcom recently released a report which represents the most thorough examination of broadband speeds ever performed within the UK. The data they collected was taken from over 60 million speed test results accumulated by 1600 broadband customers and it paints a relatively bleak picture of the UK broadband market as it stands today. The findings basically revealed what many people already knew to be true, that broadband speeds vary wildly depending on a number of factors and in the most [...]

Rolling contracts allow BT to automatically renew your contract with them for a further 12 months *without* your explicit consent. Their normal contract, however, allows you to leave when the 12 months is up. Which one did you sign up to? Because If you miss the annual reminder and try to leave BT for a cheaper alternative phone call supplier, you are stuck unless you pay for the privilege to leave! This is damaging to competition in the deregulated telecoms industry, and so far, OFCOM [...]

LLU stands for LOCAL LOOP UNBUNDLING The Local Loop connects your telephone socket or switchboard to the telephone exchange. In the past, this has always been owned by BT. Since telecom deregulation was introduced to break the BT monopoly and create free market competiton and a "level playing field", call traffic between telephone exchanges was allowed to pass over alternative networks. This is known as LCR or LEAST COST ROUTING. But historically BT always owned the last part of the connection and charge line rental [...]

It used to be that BT owned a monopoly on landlines, since they built up the infrastructure to supply them. A landline is the final connection from the BT Exchange to your premises, also known as the Local Loop. On 1st August 2006 Ofcom allowed other telecom companies to supply landline services. This is also called Local Loop Unbundling, or LLU. Other providers can now rent the LLU from BT and supply it to the customer themselves, usually at cheaper rates and sometimes as part [...]

On 1st August 2006, Ofcom, the UK Telecoms Regulator, ended the formal controls on the cost of phone line rentals and calls from BT. This leaves all phone companies (including BT themselves) free to set their own retail prices for consumers. So now you, not the regulator, are free to decide whether you think a phone company is good value or not, and can choose the right deal for you. Then keep checking it's delivering what you want, at the right price!