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percent of broadband isp users - broadband isp regular monthly rate
Wi-Fi piggybackers 'fess up
More than half (54 percent) of computer users admit to using someone else's Wi-Fi without permission, research reveals. Many internet-enabled homes fail to secure their wireless connection properly with passwords and encryption, allowing others to steal internet access rather than pay an ISP, according to IT security company Sophos, which carried out the 560-strong survey. Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, said borrowing Wi-Fi internet access may feel like a victimless crime, but it deprives ISPs of revenue. And if you hop onto your next door neighbour's wireless broadband connection to download movies and music from the net, chances are you are also slowing down their internet access and impacting on their download limit, Cluley added.
BT and NTL get ISP wooden spoon for satisfaction
How much do you love your internet service provider? If you're a customer of BT or NTL, you're most likely to be suffering from a lack of warm and fuzzy feelings towards your provider. A study by utilities comparison website uSwitch.com, which examined the relative popularity of the UK's ISPs, found that PlusNet is the nation's favourite, with BT and NTL picking up the wooden spoon for the largest percentage of unsatisfied customers. All in all, it seems the British are a broadband happy bunch. According to the survey of 16,000, 92 per cent of PlusNet customers are satisfied with their ISP, while BT and NTL - with the fewest satisfied customers - still notched up decent levels of satisfied users, with 81 and 82 per cent respectively. But what makes broadband users happy with their service? The research found that broadband Britain rates connection quality and reliability - rather than price - as the most important elements.
UK broadcasters pitch again for HD spectrum
Executives from ITV, the BBC, Channel 4 and Five have met Broadcasting Minister Margaret Hodge in a last minute plea for guaranteed spectrum to supply free high-definition television. They fear mobile phone companies will outbid them, leaving Sky and cable as the only available routes for those customers wanting HD. Their "HD For All" pressure group wants a third of the capacity between 470MHz and 862MHz set aside for HD broadcasts on Freeview. The group, which also includes manufacturers and retailers like DSG International, says that would be enough to support five new HD channels. HD For All stepped up its lobbying campaign ahead of a critical deadline next week. Responses must be in then to Ofcom's proposals on the broadcast spectrum that comes free between 2008 and 2012 as terrestrial television converts to digital.
BT and NTL get ISP wooden spoon for satisfaction
How much do you love your internet service provider? If you're a customer of BT or NTL, you're most likely to be suffering from a lack of warm and fuzzy feelings towards your provider. A study by utilities comparison website uSwitch.com, which examined the relative popularity of the UK's ISPs, found that PlusNet is the nation's favourite, with BT and NTL picking up the wooden spoon for the largest percentage of unsatisfied customers. All in all, it seems the British are a broadband happy bunch. According to the survey of 16,000, 92 per cent of PlusNet customers are satisfied with their ISP, while BT and NTL - with the fewest satisfied customers - still notched up decent levels of satisfied users, with 81 and 82 per cent respectively. But what makes broadband users happy with their service? The research found that broadband Britain rates connection quality and reliability - rather than price - as the most important elements.
Best of Reader's Poll, 2006
Superlatively speaking, isn't this town the best? Not too big like that megalopolis to the south, or too teeny-tiny like the host of little villages sprinkled between Buellton and Old Cuyama. Surprisingly cultured for a town its size, with great museums, lively stages, and resounding music halls and clubs, it's also a good place for eats, which comes as a result of its part-time job as a tourist town. We're well-educated as well, exposed to many smart people from two colleges and a major university. It's a land of parks and beaches and mountain trails and sunsets over red sails. But beyond all these generalizations is a town full of individuals who go to work, keep their homes nice, barbecue, and get out in the fresh air whenever they can. From those individuals we gleaned a list of voted-upon preferences in 225 categories of daily life here, in maybe a not perfect but definitely best of many possible Southern California worlds.
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