As a matter of fact, the download speeds of the two leading home broadband providers owned by Telefonica – therefore using the same network – on an average, dropped by 13 per cent to around 5Mbps, according to the speed-tests based on the internet.

It is also interesting that the broadband comparison website has carried out the research and also it has highlighted the strain on the broadband network used by Be and O2, while their ADSL competitors reasonably contributed to an overall 22 per centmarket surge in average internet access speeds.

It is also worth mentioning here that Be Broadband is the internet service provider in the United Kingdom to pioneer the ADSL2+ broadband technology that realized access speeds of up to 24Mbps in the country. The ISP was subsequently acquired by O2, which then saw the launch of a number of bundle packages, which meant that the network had to bear ten of thousands users additionally.

However, in spite of the slow down in broadband speeds, Be and O2 jointly delivered the second best average speeds, according to the research where Virgin Media secured the accolade for the fastest broadband supplier.

Today, it is apparent that there existed a good number of areas in the United Kingdom, where an internet connection has not yet been served. These areas, notoriously called the broadband notspots are quiet undeserved to the extent that an immediate introduction of the internet technology is required here.

The expenditure for rolling out this free mobile broadband internet service across these remote communities is comparatively small as the services see community and public structures such as churches and libraries as their axes. Meanwhile, the Freerunner system refers to a joint effort involving everyone to boost the mobile broadband coverage across the United Kingdom. The ultimate goal of the system is obviously a 100 percent broadband internet access in the country.

Incidentally, diverse communities such as the Orkney Islands or Stromness in North Devon get completely free of charge connections, although they would undoubtedly generate demand of mainstream mobile broadband products such as the PayG mobile broadband.

It is also quiet refreshing that Be Broadband, one of the first broadband suppliers in the United Kingdom to offer mobile broadband services, carries on the good work of offering competitive as well as attractive broadband packages that accommodate low priced choices for both high speed and heavy download and general use packages.

The importance of the fresh development is that the leading broadband provider operating in the United Kingdom has undercut its current most economical offer quite significantly.

The rest of the broadband package is almost similar to any other existing products of Be in the UK market, which amount to a 1.3 Mbps upload rate, a wireless modem capable of ADSL2+, free customer back up of 24s on the phone and a contract of twelve months.

Meanwhile, the broadband provider has also announced that until June 30 2010, it would be an unlimited broadband package, and the customers that would be seeking access speeds greater than the provided up to 8Mbps or downloading as a routine anything that exceeds the 40GB monthly provision, will be migrated to a higher profile broadband package of GBP 13.50 per month.

Be’s operations head, Tom Williams said that they were allowing greater freedom as well as lower prices, for their members demanded the liberty to think and prioritise for themselves rather than having their ISPs do it for them.

The reason given by Fry for his current action that would undoubtedly disappoint scores of fans and followers is that it was with a view to focus on finishing his autobiography.

He had, as a matter of fact, written on his website account that a few people could write (tweet) with ease in any given circumstances, although he needed absolute peace, zero distraction and an empty diary. Incidentally, following a widespread accusation that he was boring, Fry had let out a threat in the autumn of quitting Twitter.

It is also worth mentioning here that only last week, the US comedian and actor Ashton Kutcher, arguably the most popular blogger of Twitter, had threatened to quit the famous social network website in reaction to the remarks of a reality TV show.

As a matter of fact, Stagg stresses the provision of faster broadband internet connections, in a vein of a promise. According to him, the force behind the development would be the much expected rollout of BT’s synergistic package that includes the technology of the 21^st century network, 40Mbps FTTC broadband internet network and its latest ADSL2+ broadband product.

Stagg boasts that BT, undoubtedly the leading fixed-line broadband provider operating in the United Kingdom, has seven hundred Ethernet connection points dedicated to business broadband in the country, at present including at spots such as Wrexham, Caernarfon, Bangor, Conwy and North Wales. Incidentally, BT has already enabled business and consumer based ADSL2+ broadband services in Wrexham and Quay in Connah, as more towns could be following suit.

Meanwhile, Stagg has been particularly interested in plugging the FTTC (fibre-to-the-cabinet) technology of BT, which is something capable of offering download speeds of up to 40Mbps – this can very much be increased to 60Mbps in the future – and upstream rates of anything between 2Mbps and 15Mbps. It is also worth mentioning here that BT is musing over reaching 10 million UK businesses and households with its 100Mbps FTTH and FTTC fibre technology.

However, the flip side is that BT would only be installing five of its hundred initial FTTC exchanges initially in Wales. The five exchanges would be set up in Taffs Well, Cardiff, Penarth, Caerphilly and Barry.

As a matter of fact, the expert has urged the government of the United Kingdom to embrace a joined up thinking concept in its efforts to launch the much expected next generation fibre optic broadband network across the country.

The expert that has come forward with the claims is Ed Dawson. He has further claimed that the ministers of the nation must be looking into the example set by other nations in the context, as it appeared at present that they were not regarding the issue seriously.

Dawson who is the editor at broadband comparison site Broadband UK explained that at the moment it was only lip service that was given to the concept, with no serious desire to materialize it seen on the part of the government.

However, Dawson hopes that this might change in the coming year and warns alongside that if no political party in the country was maintaining a decent policy on the problem it could well mean that the nation could lag much behind.

The Hull Daily that reported the refreshing news revealed how hundreds of under-privileged pupils in Hull were set to receive a free PC or laptop worth more than GBP 500 that would ensure them access to broadband internet services.

According to the director of city learning centres of Hull City Council, Dougal Gill, the programme is being launched with a view to reducing the adverse effects had on the rural communities by the Digital Divide.

Gill further commented that it had been proven that there existed a link between the IT provision in the home and attainment, which can be as vital as a couple of GCSE grades. He added that if it certainly made a reasonable impact on attainment, what they were attempting to was to encourage households that did not have a computer to fetch one.

It was only earlier in the month that a number of students at the Warrington Alderman Bolton Community Primary school in Cheshire were gifted a free mobile broadband dongle that enabled them to access broadband internet services at home.

The broadband provider has treaded further to the extent of issuing a warning for the government that it would not hesitate to take legal action if the latter was carrying on with its liberalisation plans. Incidentally, the liberalisation plans of the government were a crucial part of its promise of providing every household in the country with a broadband connection of 2Mbps minimum speed.

It is also understood that BT has sent a serious letter before action to Lord Mandelson, who is currently the business secretary of the United Kingdom. In the letter, the broadband provider has expressed its protest against the government’s plans to extend the vital 3G licenses enjoyed by the mobile phone operators beyond 2021, besides threatening a judicial review, in case the proposals were implemented.

A BT spokesman commented on the issue that BT was having significant reservations around the mobile broadband spectrum proposals put forward by the Independent Spectrum Broker. He added that the extension proposal for the current 3G licenses for an indefinite term represented a present of multi million pounds from the pocket of the taxpayer in the UK to the mobile networks and was a barrier to innovation and competition in the mobile market.

Additionally, the spokesman went ahead to claim that BT was calling for the auctioning of the contracts in such a way that stimulated the competition in the UK market for both existing networks and fresh entrants.

The second most important aspect that would be considered by them was the broadband speed. It was quite interesting as well as a bit surprising to find that the factor – price, never came up as a key factor considered by them. However, in spite of the price factor lagging much behind reliability and speed in terms of priority, around 30 per cent of the respondents paid some GBP 20 a month for their broadband service.

Moreover, a good 25 per cent GBP 15 a month for their service, 21 per cent paid GBP 25 plus, 16 per cent paid GBP 10 per month and 8 per cent chose to pay only GBP 5 a month. Here, the cheaper broadband services may be deemed as part of a cut-price broadband bundle.

As a matter of fact, the latest monthly study conducted by O2, had engaged 1043 respondents of which 42 per cent downright supported reliability as the prime priority while choosing a broadband service, and 37 per cent backed internet access speeds.

Further, to the question, how likely were they to switch internet service providers in 2010, 43.3 per cent were the’ very likely’ supporter, 21.5 per cent said unlikely, 17.8 per cent said likely, and finally 17.1 per cent said very unlikely.

The setback is crucial, particularly this year’s festive season as more and more people in the United Kingdom have been opting to go online for fetching the cheaper shopping deals and free delivery packages. It was certain that an increasing number of consumers preferred to ditch the high street to embrace the better offers.

The hostile weather has caused treacherous conditions for driving that have deemed deliveries to certain addresses almost impossible before the all important Christmas day. Meanwhile, it has been confirmed by Royal Mail that they were doing everything possible to make sure that the posts were delivered on time.

On the day before Christmas, angry comments from customers virtually filled the social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter mentioning unfulfilled deliveries of gifts by both courier and postal services.

A spokesman for Royal Mail commented on the body’s state of delivery status that around 90 per cent of the operations of Royal Mail have been working absolutely normally, although in a relatively small number of locations, a few deliveries have been disrupte owing to severe road and weather conditions.