Sky broadband users reach 2.5 million, ISP now sits 4th in UK

Sky Digital announced Thursday that it now provides broadband service to more than 2.5 million customers in the UK, Webuser.co.uk reports.

The company’s 2.5 million users makes it the fourth largest internet service provider in the country behind BT Retail, Virgin Media and TalkTalk, who have 5 million, 4.18 million and 4.15 million customers, respectively.

The ISP’s number of users has increased by 101,000 since the company’s last quarter.

The company currently has 1.9 subscribers to its triple-play package, which offers broadband, cable and telephone services. However, despite the rise in customers, the company’s broadband and telephone sectors didn’t break even for the last quarter. The television sector, though, added 428,000 new users, which led to a 10 percent increase in total revenue for the quarter, TechRadar.com reports.

“The number of customers taking all three of TV, broadband and telephony is up 39 percent year-on-year and, as customers reward us with more of their business, [the average revenue per user] has surpassed £500 for the first time,” said Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch, Tech Radar reports.

Recently, Sky promised its servers would offer broadband speed of up to 20 megabits-per-second by the end of June, another WebUser report said.

New Jersey counties seek broadband funding

Atlantic, Salem, Cumberland and Gloucester counties in New Jersey recently submitted a joint bid to the United States Department of Commerce to improve broadband access and reliability for their residents. If awarded, the funding will come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

The improved broadband infrastructure would help the counties improve wireless phone service as well as broadband speed in their area of New Jersey. The counties included the need to improve government communications and public safety in their proposal as well as goals for improving educational and financial opportunities for their towns.

The county governments also believe that improved broadband speed will allow them better communication with each other.

“Not only will it help us to enhance, expand and reinforce our emergency response services, but it will allow data sharing among the four counties, vastly improving our ability to maintain government operations during a disaster recovery situation,” Atlantic County executive Dennis Levinson said.

Whether or not the Federal Communications Commission’s proposed National Broadband Plan is a success, the funds states have received from the ARRA has enabled several of them to improve broadband speed already.

Americans flock to new broadband speed test

Part of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s announcement of the National Broadband Plan was the unveiling of a website that allows Americans to test their broadband speed. In the first few days of the speed test’s availability, more than 150,000 people have taken part. As of March 17, Washington, Oregon and California boasted the fastest and most reliable speeds while Alaska, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming report the slowest. Very few states ranked in top the tier of the speed results between 11.6 to 13.3 Mbps, while most ranged from 7.9 to 10.0, according to Arts Technica. The test is not fully developed yet, but the government plans to use the mastered version of the program to eliminate dead zones in the U.S. “The FCC can hope to get a much clearer picture about the broadband speeds once the test tool comes out of beta; thereby indicating the potential to report the virtual dead zones that totally lack broadband service,” according to Amandeep Dhalwal, a writer for TopNews. According to Arts Technica, the FCC will use the information collected through the broadband testing page to make informed decisions on policy regarding web access and regulation.

FCC announces National Broadband Plan

In recent weeks, U.S. Federal Communications Chairman Julius Genachowski has revealed small details of the organization’s National Broadband Plan, but Wednesday morning the plan was made public. As expected, the primary goal of the plan is eliminating the digital divide that prevents millions of low-income families or those in rural areas from obtaining reliable, high-speed internet access.

As part of the announcement, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology revealed technology that will make it easier for ISPs to provide web access to people in rural areas and other regions currently without infrastructure for broadband.

“If we don’t act, we put at risk the promise of America as a land of opportunity, stranding on the wrong side of the digital divide a host of important American communities: rural Americans, low-income Americans, minorities, seniors, Tribal communities and Americans with disabilities, too many of whom will be left fighting the challenges of a 21st century world with 20th century weapons,” Genachowski said in a statement.

The move brings the U.S. a step closer to complete broadband coverage, which is one of the Obama Administration’s stated goals. A survey conducted by GlobeScan for the British Broadcasting Company revealed that more than 80 percent of 27,000 people in 26 countries believe that internet access should be considered a basic human right.

Grants awarded to improve broadband access in Midwest

The latest grants awarded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act went to Colorado-based Level 3 EON and Oklahoma-based Totah Communications to improve the availability of high-speed internet access in Southeast and South-Central Kansas.

Level 3 EON received $998,400 from the grant, while Totah received $8.5 million. The broadband improvements are expected to help 50,000 households and nearly 4,000 businesses obtain high-speed internet that is currently unavailable or unaffordable in the area.

“We’re excited that Level 3 EON and Totah Communications have been awarded this Recovery Act funding to expand high-speed internet in Kansas,” said Kansas Secretary of Commerce Bill Thornton. “Through projects like this, we’ll continue to foster economic growth and sustainability in our rural communities while also increasing the overall quality-of-life for our rural citizens.”

In recent months since the first wave of funding from the ARRA was awarded, Kansas has improved its available internet access. Now more than 96 percent of Kansas can access the internet, but for many rural communities the cost is too prohibitive. The most recent grants are likely to bring the cost down along with improving the quality of the service, according to ConnectKansas.org.