BT ups traffic allowance across its broadband

BT has increased the traffic allowances across its entire broadband portfolio. The new guidelines will come into effect on 15 October and in addition to raising the limits BT will no longer penalise or charge users who exceed them; instead frequent 'offenders' are contacted with a suggestion that they move to a service with a higher limit. The new limits are as follows: BT Broadband Basic - 2GB (currently 1GB); BT Broadband - 20GB (15GB); BT Yahoo! Broadband - the 15GB option rises to 20GB and the 30GB rises to 40GB. ...more

Telecomms giant serves lawsuit on Microsoft

A US telecommunications giant serves Microsoft with another lawsuit. Microsoft is accused by AT&T of infringing patented technology relating to transmissions of phone calls and video over the Internet. The claims relate to Microsoft's TrueSpeech, the speech processing system, and NetMeeting software, which supports video conferencing. ...more

DRM issues sway another Blu-ray recruit

Lions Gate Home Entertainment is the latest media company to back Blu-ray. The independent movies and TV producer will begin releasing material from its back catalogue just as soon as Blu-ray hardware becomes available in the US, probably early next year. For a while it looked like HD-DVD was the favourite to emerge as the dominant high-definition DVD technology, but Lions Gate's backing, closely following commitments from Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Music, has seemingly seen the momentum pass to Blu-ray. ...more

Comment: What's gone wrong at Dell?

There's one, insurmountable problem about being at the top: the only way is down. For Dell, formerly the world's largest PC maker by a distance, the downward spiral is looking ominously steep. For the crucial fourth quarter of last year, Dell saw its PC shipments slump by more than 8 per cent year-on-year, according to research from IDC. ...more

Ten per cent of retail sales now online

The British online retail market is now estimated to be worth around ?30 billion a year. The figure represents 10 per cent of all retail shopping in the UK according to a new survey published by the e-tailers trade body IMRG. The report also claims that a further ?20 billion worth of other spending is carried out online. ...more