From The Register
Virgin Media cuts Pirate Bay access for millions of punters
First major telco to implement court order
By Kelly Fiveash 3rd May 2012 12:19 GMT
Virgin Media has become the first major telco in Blighty to implement a court order blocking access to notorious BitTorrent search website The Pirate Bay.
The move follows a demand in London's High Court late last Friday from Mr Justice Arnold, who told Virgin Media, TalkTalk, BSkyB, Telefonica and Everything Everywhere to comply with preventing those companies' broadband subscribers from surfing to TPB.
Screengrab courtesy of Reg reader Colin Lymanhttp://regmedia.co.uk/2012/05/03/vir..._bay_block.png
As we previously reported, national telco BT was missing from the order. That provider has been given more time to comply, but we understand that an announcement from BT about...

Source BBC News
Mobile network Everything Everywhere has taken fresh steps to lobby for 4G data services in the UK.

The firm is urging business leaders and consumer champions to join 4GBritain - a campaign calling on the government "to do whatever is necessary to move forward" with the roll-out.

The network operator's chief executive said the UK needed to catch up.

The sale of the 4G spectrum has been delayed by operators fighting over how to distribute the airwaves.

Source BBC News
File-sharing site The Pirate Bay must be blocked by UK internet service providers, the High Court has ruled.

The Swedish website hosts links to download mostly pirated free music and video.

Sky, Everything Everywhere, TalkTalk, O2 and Virgin Media must all prevent their users from accessing the site.

"Sites like The Pirate Bay destroy jobs in the UK and undermine investment in new British artists," the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) said.

Samsung Electronics has overtaken Nokia to become the world's largest maker of mobile phones, according to research firm Strategy Analytics.

Nokia took the top spot in 1998 from Motorola, but in the first quarter of 2012 Samsung shipped 93m phones compared to almost 83m by Nokia.

Samsung also reported its highest quarterly profit since 2008.

Net profit was 5.05tn won ($4.5bn; £2.8bn) in the quarter ending 31 March, up 81% from 2.78tn won last year.

Samsung is also the world's biggest TV and flat screen maker.

Microsoft has rushed out a fix for a serious bug in its Hotmail webmail services.

The bug allowed a hacker to reset the password for a Hotmail account, locking out its owner and giving the attacker access to the inbox.

The fix was put together because the bug was starting to be actively exploited online.

One security news site reported that some hackers were offering to hack Hotmail accounts for $20 (£12).

Computer security researchers discovered the vulnerability in early April and told Microsoft about it soon afterwards. The bug revolved around the way Hotmail handles the data that must pass back and forth when a user wants to reset their password.

Windows 8 will be signed off and released to PC manufacturers in June, paving the way for a September or October launch.

Microsoft will deliver what it's calling a "release preview" of Windows 8 in the first week of June, Windows chief Steven Sinofsky has revealed.

Sinofsky announced the news at Windows 8 Dev Days in Japan, which was promptly tweeted by Microsofts Building Windows 8 blog.

There were no more details, but based on delivery of Windows 8 to date and compared to launches past, this is what would normally be called the Windows release to manufacturing (RTM) code – the version of the new code Microsoft considers finished and which it releases to partners to install on new PCs and press into CDs.

Only, in keeping with the reworked lexicon of Windows, that meant the February beta was called a "consumer preview" – and it looks as if the RTM is now a "release preview".

The British middle classes' favourite high street retailer, John Lewis, is renowned for its customer service.

Britain's ISPs are not renowned for their customer service, although sometimes they are fast and often they are cheap.

So one can see why John Lewis thinks it will make a significant splash with this week's own-brand broadband and phone service launch.

John Lewis Broadband offers no activation fees, freephone support and a free wireless router. There are three packages, all on 12-month "no hidden catches" contracts.

Standard - up to 16Mbps, 20GB cap, £24.50 a month
Unlimited - up to 16Mbps, No limit, £31.50

BT has kicked off a trial and pilot scheme to which rival ISPs can sign up. It will run until mid-June this year.

The national telco invited members of the next generation access (NGA) group to test out its "ultrafast" 330Mbit/s, 30Mbps upstream speed fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) download product and the company's up to 80Mbps downstream, 20 Mbps upload speed FTTP tech.

It said that its subsequent pilot would "be based upon a sample size of between 100 to 150 orders (including those involved in the technical trial)."

The trials will only take place in six areas: Bradwell Abbey, Highams Park, Ilford Central, Leytonstone, York and Wembley.

As of 21 May, the pilot will be extended to those parts of UK that Openreach has already upgraded to FTTP. BT is expecting to "pass" around 2.5 million premises with that technology by 2014 as part of its £2.5bn investment in its cabling infrastructure.

From The Register
America abandoning DSL in favour of faster cable
Dash to fibre as people abandon twisted copper
By Bill Ray 27th January 2012 17:27 GMT
ADSL connections to US homes are on the slide as companies and consumers turn to cable and fibre for faster connectivity.
End of 2011 results show Verizon [1] lost almost half a million DSL customers during last year, while AT&T [2] managed to lose more than six hundred thousand...