Virgin Media have announced that they now offer super-fast 100Mb broadband speeds to 10 million UK homes. Originally planning to have the service available to half of the UK by the middle of the year, Virgin Media have now revealed they are well ahead of schedule and are on course to finish the roll-out by the Spring.

Virgin Media are currently pledging to double the broadband speed of all its new and existing customers by 2013, with Olympic gold medallist and world's fastest man used in the advertising campaigns to illustrate the point.

That means that those subscribed to Virgin Media's L and M services will see their speeds jump from 10Mb to 20Mb, XL customers jumping from 30Mb to 60Mb and XXL customers getting a whopping 100Mb up from their existing 50Mb service. Existing 100Mb subscribers will also see the cost of their subscription drop as a result of the nationwide upgrades.

186,000km of cable and 38,000 street cabinets are getting the upgrade treatment, with the double-speed roll-out hitting different areas at different times.

Virgin Media's announcement is a timely one. Just last Friday BT announced that they were trialling FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) technology. While it's quite some way away from being a broadband standard, FTTP offers superb 300Mb speeds.

Having Wi-Fi woes indoors? Then you may be considering getting a Powerline Ethernet connection kit. But before you dive into your pockets for a set-up from NetGear or Devolo, take a look at this new solution from a company called Power Ethernet.

Aimed at offices but available to consumers too, it replaces the standard double-gang wall socket found around your home with one that offers a single plug socket alongside four ports for Powerline Ethernet connectivity.

As anyone who uses Powerline networking will tell you (myself included), it offers a much more stable and faster web connection than Wi-Fi does. Instead of travelling over the air it sends the web data across the electrical wiring of your house.

Some Powerline networking boxes (which usually plug into a spare wall socket around your home) can be a bit chunky, but with the Power Ethernet sockets fitted directly into your wall, they'll fit anywhere that an electrical connection can be found.

The Power Ethernet ports also offer a few other enhanced features, such as better filtering from things like fridges which can disrupt standard Powerline and, as it's closer to the ring main, transfer speeds nearer to the 200MBps maximum often touted but rarely reached.

"The Power Ethernet socket is a true game changer for the electrical industry," said Power Ethernet Managing Director, Daniel Rogoff.

"For the first time, electricians and electrical contractors can start specifying and installing data networks for customers without specialist cabling knowledge. From Connected TVs and games consoles to CCTV and IP phones, there are a rapidly growing number of IP enabled devices in homes and workplaces that need high-speed, physical network connections. I'm very excited to be launching a product that enables the electrical industry to play a big role in satisfying that demand."

Priced at £144 (including VAT) you can find out more by clicking here.

London gets its first 1Gbps broadband service today courtesy of Hyperoptic.

While limited to the small community based in Prices Court in Wandsworth, it's the first time Brits have had access to such a fast web connection.

And it's a bargain too. While BT Infinity costs at least £18 a month (not including line rental) for 40Mbps and Virgin's top package offers 50Mbps for £30 a month, Hyperoptic's super speeds start at just £12.50 a month, going up to £50 a month not including line rental. For around £60 then, you're getting the sort of speeds that even those in fibre-optic rich Asian territories dream of.

"We were struck by Hyperoptic's innovative proposition and could immediately see the benefit a fibre network offers our residents. Firstly, it's about improving quality of life in terms of having access to the best and fastest technologies rather than struggling with the frustrations of slow connectivity," said Zair Berry, Director at Prices Court.

"No one else out there can offer us speeds of 1 Gig. Secondly, we want to future-proof our development for existing and prospective tenants, adding the value fibre brings a property. While fibreoptic standards currently allow for 10Gbps bandwidths, this network can accommodate the Internet as it grows and matures. We're thrilled to be Hyperoptic's first customer."

Hyperoptic, run by founding members of Be Broadband, are planning further roll outs across London in 2012, with regions set to benefit including Battersea, the Docklands, Holborn, Shepherds Bush, Vauxhall and Westminster.

Name: Three MiFi HSPA+ (Huawei E586)

Type: Portable personal Wi-Fi hotspot

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: £84.99 with 3GB of data/ Free on 18 month tariff at £10.87 per month with 1GB data allowance/ Free on 24 month tariff at £18.99 a month with 15GB data allowance

Three's latest MiFi personal Wi-Fi hotspot certainly is a looker, and with newly-added HSPA+ connectivity, makes some bold claims when it comes to mobile broadband speeds. Can it deliver superfast downloads when out on the road, or will a standard dongle offer similar results? Read on to find out.

If you're even remotely interested in consumer technology (if you aren't, God only know swhat you're doing on this site) chances are that you don't leave the house without several web-enabled devices. From smartphones to games consoles, e-readers to tablets to laptops, if it's got a battery in it, chances are it can connect to the web these days. However, when it comes to mobile broadband, keeping each of these devices connected can be expensive.

Here's where Three's MiFi range comes in. Small, pebble-shaped devices weighing just 90 grams, they're portable, pocketable, battery-powered Wi-Fi hotspots that connect to Three's mobile network and let multiple devices connect to the internet at once, wherever you may be.

On the upside, you're likely to save plenty of dough using a MiFi as you only have to shell out for one tariff every month. In the past, the downside however has been that connection speeds can get a little shoddy when split across multiple devices.

Three's latest MiFi, the E586, more-or-less sidesteps the issue of speed by being the first device to offer a HSPA+ connection. In theory, this gives you download speeds as fast as 21.6Mbps and upload speeds of 5.76Mbps. This, in theory, makes it far more attractive than a regular dongle's 7.2Mbps max download speed.

Great in theory, but how about in practice? Nowhere near as fast, but not too shabby either. In areas of strong signal we regularly topped speeds of 8Mbps, which just wouldn't be possible on a standard dongle, averaging out at 5 or 6Mbps elsewhere. This extra speed boost made connecting multiple devices for simultaneous usage far less of a pain too, making this MiFi kit a real work tool for teams needing reliable web access when out of the office.

Those looking to use the MiFi in a professional capacity will be pleased to hear the many security features built in here too. Though you can easily just pop in the supplied SIM-card and battery, switch on and connect your devices using the SSID/password card, those looking for extra protection can visit http://3.home in their browsers and tweak settings like WPA2-PSK and AES TKIP WPA encryption. You can also use this page to send and receive messages using the MiFi, though the practical application of this feature is limited.

Three still suffer from intermittent coverage blackspots (like, annoyingly, the area of our Central London office specifically where I sit it would seem) but it was very impressive just how often it picked up a HSPA+ connection when out around town. Of course London is likely to have better coverage than more rural spots, so double-check with a coverage tracking site to before a purchase, but even with a standard 3G mobile broadband connection the dongle performed well.

As we alluded to earlier, the new MiFi looks pretty snazzy too. Available in black or white, a small but clear OLED screen shows info on signal strength, connection type, connected devices (as many as five at a time), connection status, messages, battery level, total data usage and roaming state. Charging over USB (or using a supplied cradle) the USB connection can also be used to access the microSD slot on the side of the MiFi (card not included) potentially turning the unit into a portable 32GB drive too. Overall, battery life is excellent too, managing 5.5 hours of heavy usage and as much as 100 hours on standby from a single charge.

Verdict:

Without the HSPA+ capabilities, Three's latest MiFi hotspot would still be a stylish mobile broadband unit capable of reliable, on-the-go connectivity. With HSPA+, and with the flexible tariff system Three have in place, it becomes a genuinely viable alternative to a fixed broadband connection for light internet users. Three still suffer from the odd blackspot, but if you're lucky enough to be within range of a HSPA+ connection here, it's a genuinely excellent bit of kit.

A new government-planned initiative in the UK will see internet service providers blocking access to pornographic websites as a measure to prevent children from accidentally accessing adult material.

New subscribers to BT, Virgin Media, Talk Talk and Sky will have to "opt in" to adult content when they open a new account, which could lead to some of the most hilarious customer service phone calls of all time. "Booty call" may get a whole new meaning if the planned block comes to pass.

Ed Vaizey first suggested the block late last year in December, with Prime Minister David Cameron sealing the move after meetings with Christian charity Mother's Union, who had been asked to look into ways children access explicit content.

Further Monther's Union proposals include introducing a new website called ParentPort, where parents can flag innappropriate imagery on the net, as well as saucy advertising campaigns.

It is not yet known how the sites to be blocked will be chosen, but we imagine "naughty bits" are high on the list of criteria.

If you were looking to settle down in a new home, what would be the top details that would factor into your final choice? A large garden? Good nearby schools for the kids? Strong transport links? Well, for 1 in 10 Britons, one of the top home-buying issues is apparently broadband speed.

My Voucher Codes ran a survey of 1,652 people who had rented or purcahsed a new property in the last two years, and found that 11% looked into broadband speed as a major home-buying factor. Of that 11%, 17% of those that said broadband speed was a deciding factor admitted that they had "rejected a property that they would otherwise have liked because of the slow broadband speed".

Obviously some more standard needs top the list (28% wanted to be close to work, 21% were looking for schools nearby), but it's interesting to see how being connected in this internet age is now a major concern in our daily lives.

"Whilst it is important to take into account all factors of a house when considering if you are going to move there, sacrificing your dream home for the sake of a slightly faster internet speed elsewhere seems a bit silly. If it's your dream property, you should really weigh up what's more important to you," said Mark Pearson chairman of My voucher Codes.

"A slow internet connection can be very annoying, but nowadays, when broadband is so readily available in many areas of the UK, it shouldn't be of too much concern to those moving house. If you're unhappy with the service you're getting from your internet provider, it's worth shopping around and finding out if your supplier is the right one for you."

Virgin Media's 100MB broadband service is now available to four million UK residents, with plenty more areas in-line to receive the super-fast broadband upgrade before the year is out.

86 UK areas currently have access to the fibre optic network, with Bromborough, Livingston, Horndean and Stretford getting the super-fast connection by the end of the month too.

"As data consumption rises and consumers grow increasingly reliant on their broadband service, only Virgin Media's unique network is primed to cater for the UK's impending data explosion," said Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media.

"With four million homes now able to 'get in the fast lane' with our 100Mb service, the UK is racing up the broadband league tables and we're delighted to be playing the leading role in boosting the UK's digital infrastructure."

100MB Virgin Media broadband costs £35 per month when taken with a Virgin phone package, or £45 when taken without the phone package. It's a service 16 times faster than the national average, allowng for the average full HD film to be downloaded in just seven minutes, and an entire album's worth of MP3s in around five seconds.

A 200MB service is also being trialled, while Virgin Media are also installing a 1.5Gb cable trial in East London too.

Click here to check whether or not you can get Virgin's 100MB broadband service in your area, and if not, when you can expect to see it rolled out.

Name: Home Hub 3 (BT)

Type: Wi-Fi Broadband Router

Specs: Click here for full specs

Price: Free with new BT Broadband packages, £46 for existing customers, £92 without a BT contract

BT's Home Hub 3 aims to eliminate Wi-Fi woes by employing a new "Smart Wireless" technology. But does this new channel hopping system do enough to glaze over a few other notably absent features?

Wireless internet has become the standard for so many laptops and mobile devices that it's hard to remember a time when there was no choice but to wire a connection to your PC in order to connect to the net. However ubiquitous Wi-Fi connections have now become, so too have frustratingly frequent drop outs and wireless interference. As the headline feature of the BT Home Hub 3 router, Smart Wireless technology aims to do away with this.

Though the majority of routers these days scan for the most interference-free channel when first setting up your Wi-Fi connection, over time the channel can become flooded with interference from other devices in the vicinity, meaning only a hard reset or manual signal change will do the trick to fix connection issues. BT's Smart Wireless technology consistently scans for interference and dynamically changes the wireless channel to maintain the best possible connection.

And it seems to work too. I live in flats notorious for Wi-Fi drop out thanks to a number of gadget-happy neighbours, and experienced the first consistent wireless connection that I've enjoyed in many years. Even when I placed an analogue video sender near it, the router adapted quickly to the problem and changed channel accordingly. Though we couldn't judge how consistently the router would perform when surrounded by other routers in close proximity, the router should suit most home set ups without a hitch.

It's not just the consistency of the connection that's impressive, but the quality too. Even two floors up through solid walls it managed respectable speeds, with a maximum of 12Mbits/sec clocked outside thirty metres away from the router, using 802.11n wireless. Depending on your connection speed, data rates potentially can max out at 144 Mbit/sec or 300 Mbits/sec using the optional 40 MHz mode.

It's a pretty little device, as far as routers go aswell. A curved black sloping box, it features 3 front-facing indicator lights which change colour according to the power supply and quality of the broadband connectivity and wireless connections.

On the rear you'll find four Ethernet ports (though only one is Gigabit) and two WAN ports (an RJ11 port for the built-in ADSL modem, and another RJ45 port that supports the VDSL2 protocol used to connect to BT's Infinity fibre-optic broadband service). There's also room for a USB port, acting as a network storage space or printer sharer. A pull out tab that slips out of the rear of the device with the WPS pin and password written on it is a nice touch too, meaning you'll always have a portable code to hand as you set up devices around the house.

Those nice looks carry over into the simple set-up of the device too, making it perfect for novice users. A web interface allows you to adjust the hub's settings, such as wireless security protocols and eco-friendly standby scheduling. Though the web interface defaults to only the most basic commands, it opens up when you click the advanced view to carry out more complex tasks such as port forwarding and firewall details.

However, those using older Wi-Fi devices will be frustrated to find that 128-bit WEP isn't supported, leaving you only with 64-bit WEP instead. Though WPA and WPA2 should be sufficiently secure for the majority of devices, users of gadgets making use of older security standards may find this omission a little disquieting. Heavy media streamers and gamers alike may also be frustrated to see that there is also no support for QoS, meaning there's no way of prioritising traffic for smooth web video playback or stutter-free online gaming.

Though it's hard to judge the number of people who made use of the feature, the BT Home Hub 3 also drops Broadband Talk support. Those who make use of the service on previous Home Hubs and BT packages should therefore avoid this latest unit.

Verdict:

Though it may be a hard sell on its own, the BT Home Hub 3 is a consistent and reliable router. Maintaining a solid connection over-the-air at respectable speeds in our notoriously interference-rich testing spot, it's well worth a £46 upgrade for existing BT subscribers, and is a real bargain as a free part of the telecom giant's broadband packages.

Ofcom have compiled a report revealing the most often complained about mobile, landline and broadband network providers. It makes for grim reading for anyone tied to a 3UK or T-Mobile contract, who top the mobile list by a fair margin.

Looking at operators who have a 5% or greater market share ( 3UK, O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone) and calculating the number of complaints per 1,000 customers, 3UK was found to have 0.15 complaints per 1,000 customers, and T-Mobile 0.13. Put against fellow operator O2, who had only 0.04 complaints, it looks pretty bad for T-Mobile and 3UK, with billing errors and poor customer service chief among the problems customers faced.

In terms of landlineand broadband networks, Talk Talk was the chief culprit, receiving the most complaints with 1.78 and 1.28 per 1,000 respectively.

"Consumers should have access to as much information as possible to allow them to choose between providers and to take full advantage of the competition in the sector," said Ofcom chief executive, Ed Richards.

"By publishing complaints data, Ofcom aims to provide useful information to consumers, and also to give telecoms providers an incentive to improve their customer service."

Fujitsu are setting in motion plans to bring fibre-optic broadband to 5 million UK homes, through new partnerships with Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Cisco.

The network, set to hit speeds of 1Gbps, will be funded in part by the UK Government's £530 million budget for bringing high-speed broadband to rural areas. Cisco will be offering up their networking technology alongside Fujitsu for the venture, with Virgin Media and TalkTalk looking to tap into the network to expand their own fibre-optic offerings.

In many cases, the plan is to run cabling direct to users homes (FTTH), rather than to a local exchange first, which potentially means the network is scalable up to speeds of 10Gbps.

Communication Minister Ed Vaizey sang the praises of the proposed network plans:

"Superfast broadband is already helping businesses grow and improving the lives of those able to access it. But many rural and hard to reach areas are missing out. The whole of the UK should be able to share in the benefits of broadband and we are determined to make that happen by the end of the Parliament. That is why the Government is investing over £500m in taking superfast broadband to everyone.

"I am delighted that Fujitsu along with Virgin Media, TalkTalk and Cisco share the Government's vision. Creating this superfast broadband network will help improve the economic and social prospects of the homes and businesses where high-speed internet access remains just a dream."

Colin Murray, radio DJ, sports pundit on the airwaves and TV and generally-all-round-nice-bloke has partnered up with BT to help them promote their growing BT Infinity super-fast broadband network. He's created an online guide on how to get the most out of the service, including tips on getting the best from gaming, sports and music on the web. You can view them all by visiting www.btlife.bt.com/infinityhowto.

Colin was kind enough to sit down for the best part of an hour with Tech Digest, and we talked about everything from iTunes to illegal football streams, Super Mario to what best to do with an elephant carcass on a desert island. Read on for a lengthy-but-very interesting chat indeed!

Colin, can you explain to Tech Digest's readers what you've been doing with the BT team?

I've been working with them to launch the superfast BT Infinity broadband. It's a 40Mb connection with 10Mbps download speeds compared to the half a Mb we're used to with standard broadband. BT came to me to talk about sport, music and gaming; I think they expected sport to be the big thing but found out that I'm more about the music and gaming when online! Because I use two or three web-connected gadgets at once like my iPad and Sonos audio gear it turned out I was the perfect person to work with.

So you're a bit of a gadget-head then?

Yeah, but not an extreme one that doesn't have relations with any women! But one enough to be quite savvy with it; I know when a first generation gadget is a good first generation gadget, like the iPad, and likewise when not to buy the iPad 2. That's a ridiculous upgrade! I recently had to transfer a web domain though and that went above my head; I had to re-align something and I couldn't do it so I had to get my mate from a website company to do it.

I'm part of that first generation of tech-savvy kids (I'm 34 now). So I had the first wave of proper computer games consoles you could have in your house, the Commodore, the Spectrum. Then I had one of the first dial-up internet connections. I can't even remember how fast that was. It was absolutely nothing was it?

The first one I had was a 56K dial-up, but it sounds like you're going back before that again then?

Yeah, thanks very much for reminding me I go back further! But yeah, you're right. 12K? I remember it being 12K I think. But then as it upgrades you go "Wow, that's it now, I don't need to go any faster", but then you look at something like Infinity and it blows you away. It'll be interesting to see in four years whether or not even this will have to get faster.

The thing is it's all about the engine that powers your technology, and it's getting to the stage now where it's all advancing so quickly that a product like the superfast broadband needs to have to completely catch up with it. Like here you can have four HD videos streaming at once and (in my experience) they hardly have to re-buffer; you can just watch and watch and watch. I'm a big baseball fan and I watch a lot of it online, but with standard broadband it always has to re-buffer. I get to enjoy the games live, but at times you can miss really important moments, whereas with Infinity I could watch four games at the same time.

You've had a lengthy career in radio, which is what most people would recognise you from I suppose?

Yeah, I'm doing alright! Been in the job 11 or 12 years.

How do you feel the rise of the internet has affected radio broadcasting?

Print journalism and broadcast journalism are very different things, and even within broadcast journalism TV and radio again are very different. I think you'll never really break the connection that you're only ever broadcasting to one person with radio, and people will always seek that out. Technology sits alongside people's passion for music and passion for conversation; it doesn't replace it, it never replaces it. Sometimes you hear people saying we're going to get to the stage that we'll never even have to talk to each other any more and that's absolute nonsense, you know? Technology can change how we discover music for the better, and for the worse; it can change how we garner our music. Do we buy it? Do we steal it? And I don't think even the record companies have quite got their heads around those issues yet.

But in direct reference to radio, the internet will never replace it, it'll just expand it and change how we access it. Traditional radio stations might be worried about the loyalty people have with the station brand. I know with Sonos I can listen to any radio station in the world, but a good show is a good show and my favourite presenters are my favourite presenters, and no technology is going to change that. I just might end up consuming more radio and having more favourite presenters, and I think that's great for the industry, not bad.

With the likes of BT Infinity making streaming stuff really consistent, are apps like Spotify a rival to radio?

I think a good presenter will listen to every new record he gets and play the best of that, communicating that with his audience, and he'll do that with maybe a massive 1 million people, or 10 million people, or 10 thousand people, or 5 thousand people. I don't think you can replace that. It all depends on being able to get what you need with the technology that's available. Do I buy less music because of the internet? I buy more music. For example, playing Grand Theft Auto online, of all things, gave me jazz music. I was never interested in jazz music until I was driving down the road in the game and I heard Chet Baker's Let's Get Lost. I've now spent thousands of pounds on jazz music in the last two years; I've travelled to North America just to see Dave Brubeck live. I wouldn't have even known who he was three years ago.

In terms of digital music downloads, is it still a balance for you? Are you still going down the record shop?

Oh absolutely; maybe this is an exception, not enough people do this to be fair, but I still know when I need to buy vinyl records, and know when it's OK to download something aswell. I also do a radio show where I pick the music as I go along, and I use two iPods and an iPad for that; I rarely tap into my vinyl because that's sacred. Never take them out DJ-ing either. People say I'm a philistine for using CDs, but I'm not going to bring my vinyl to a student union, you know?

Let me put it this way; when you were first able to download music, it would take how long to download one track? 8 minutes, 9 minutes, 10 minutes? With Infinity I can download an entire album in 4 minutes. Note even 4 minutes in some cases, given the new Radiohead album is only bloody eight tracks long!

So do you see a return to people buying an entire album and listening to it in one go, as opposed to the recent trend in the digital sphere of just the odd track here and there on shuffle?

I hope so. It is a convenience thing; the faster you can do it, the more chance that sort of thing wont be lost. I think some of the beauty of an album in terms of the ordering of album tracks has been lost a bit. But if you can grab an entire album this quickly perhaps that sort of magic wont be gone forever.

These things always start on the periphery. Take VHS; that was going nowhere till the adult entertainment industry got involved and that's a fact. With music the first things that worked were things like Hype Machine, and I still use that a hell of a lot. You'd go on there for a particular version of a track or a new download. Now people are downloading mainstream music from mainstream sites. Still way too many people stealing and not paying for it though. Again, music being streamed legally is causing me to buy more music. If technology gets better we might see it levelling out with more people buying music again. It's getting there.

So you wouldn't agree with Jon Bon Jovi then, who recently said Apple's Steve Jobs had killed the music industry?

I would not agree with anybody who changed their name from Jon Bongiovi, to Jon Bon Jovi! I've never got that! My question to him is "Why did you drop the 'I' in 'Giovi'?" Why was that so important?! Look; there's absolutely no doubt that bands are making less money, but the industry itself needs to adapt better. Bands like The Futureheads have done much better by going it alone on their own labels and doing it themselves. I'm sorry if the music industry is not making millions and millions of pounds, but they also have an obligation to realise that, in the short term, if you spend £500,000 in Britain alone to market a band that aren't good enough it's going to flop whether the internet is there or not. It's a shame to see so many record stores go down the drain though and that's the big thing. Even when doing this with BT I keep pushing how important it is to support your local independent record store. Independent Record Day is only two weeks away; I'll support it and you should too. I don't agree with Bon Jovi; the music industry is still there. Do I think bands are making less money because people are stealing music? Yes. Who's your favourite band for example?

At the moment I'm listening to British Sea Power a lot.

It's a terrible question to ask, but British Sea Power are a really good example; made good music for quite a while, got an album Mercury Prize shortlisted, sold more records, got to play the mainstage at Leeds Festival. That's a progression of a band who didn't have £500,000 thrown at their first album, just trying to recoup enough money back off it. Would British Sea Power have got beyond one album had they been signed in 2011? I'm not sure they would have. I'm not sure a band like Muse, who are massive now, would have got past their first album as that's hardly a classic and wasn't commercially successful at the beginning. I think you've just got to remember that if you don't buy music by the bands you idolise, they're going to be living on a council estate for the rest of their lives, and we don't want that for our heroes.

You're a big sports fan and football fan too with Liverpool your club of choice. What are your favourite football sites and why?

I think when it's your country's main sport, as it is with football and rugby for me, I don't have much need to go very far online as every single news show covers it. It's much more important when it comes to sports that aren't so big here, then you feel like you're getting the very best coverage online, especially with live streaming. For me it's baseball. So online I download Sports Illustrated every week. I watch games online too which is a bit of a nightmare with normal broadband as it has to buffer all the time and you miss all the action. For that ESPN is amazing so probably of every sport site I'd go with that one. Also because they've got my fantasy team on there!

Do you get involved with the community side of things? Forums, Twitter and the like?

Not really, though funnily enough I'm probably a member of every best forum for every single Premier League club online, but I don't post. I go on them for good honest information on what fans are thinking, be it abut a signing or a manager. With clubs like Manchester City it really helps, when you look at it from a monetary point of view; what they spent and where they are in the League. If you're a Man City fan you know how long you've spent without even being in contention for the League. With the forums you get their genuine points of view. It's brilliant from a professional stance.

How about the more shady side of sports streaming, with the live Premier League matches that the likes of Sky can't, or choose not to, broadcast?

I've never done it. It sounds wrong that I haven't done it. There's never been a sporting event that I've wanted to see that I haven't been able to get easier some other way than looking for some obscure stream from abroad. The issue for me with watching sport online has been the speed of the download, not the availability. But maybe that's a bit privileged of me to say that; I'm signed up to MLB.com and spending $30 a month to get that. People who don't have the money probably do go to illegal sites.

Premier League match attendances haven't been quite as high this year. Do you think football streaming sites factor into that?

It's different in each league. I think research shows that for certain teams being on television or online doesn't affect them at all. Other teams it really does affect it. I think it depends on the the area of each club, and that area's micro-economy. It's more of an issue with the price of the tickets rather than some middle-eastern website streaming them. If you're spending £300 to take 6 people to a game of football that's probably more of a reason why attendances will be down. Especially now that superfast broadband is only taking off now; you know the quality you're going to get online at the moment so I can't see it having a huge influence.

So you're an online gamer too we hear?

Unfortunately I'm not very good though!

The age-old question then! Which do you prefer: FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer?

I've been a Pro Evolution boy all the way! Even when they've been terrible! You knew Pro Evolution was losing the plot when they skipped one to be on the same number as FIFA, that was such a sign of weakness! I still go back and play the earlier ones that you can't take online too like Pro Evo 2 and 3. Online play is great though; being from Northern Ireland I only get to see my mates back home once every couple of months but can play with them online every week. I'm a huge Mario Kart fan too, even though I know it's for kids!

There's nothing wrong with Mario Kart!

I love it to death! Mario's like the Beatles of gaming; you just have to like them. It might be unintuitive to say he's the best character ever but it's true! You have to live with that! I go completely into solitary confinement for some of my favourite games like Red Dead Redemption; I couldn't imagine playing something like Red Dead online, why would you want to? I want to ride out on me own! I'm a very anti-social social person! It's a world of difference with BT Infinity playing that sort of thing online though. I con only get 30 or 40% into a shoot-em up game though and then I have to let my nephew finish them! Always sports games though online; Pro Evo, NBA, even Tiger Woods.

New Tiger Woods game out this week. Will you be picking that up then?

I dunno, he's kinda lost his sheen, Tiger recently. He was The Man before! The unlockable "Sunday Tiger" character doesn't mean the same thing now. In the game he shoots a better round, but Sunday Tiger at the moment in real life swears and spits. Not very reflective of the real Sunday Tiger, eh?!

OK, to round things up then Colin; you're stuck on a desert island. You can only save one of the following items; a football, a baseball set (complete with mitt, ball and glove), a radio or an Xbox 360. The last two items have a miraculous unlimited power supply. Which do you choose?

Does the Xbox have unlimited games?

Err...just your top three favourites!

Ahh, you've moved the goalposts now. Not the computer games, wouldn't take that, there'd be no connection there. It's gotta be radio first. That'd give you every bit of sport, every bit of music and every bit of news. That needs to be first, a clear first! Xbox would be a clear last, especially being a PlayStation boy! I'd take the football over the baseball stuff, because you'd lose the baseball. Can't lose a football; I was on holiday recently and I can't swim, so I was kicking the ball into the water and had the waves pushing it back, so that'd be quite a good game! Actually, it'd be the saddest thing in the world to be trapped on a desert island with an Xbox; you can build your own home, learn how to grow your own food, learn how to fish, and you're just sat there hunched over a controller playing GTA! You'd make your own games, carving chess pieces out of a dead elephant and stuff!

Great! Thanks for your time Colin!

Think your Virgin Meda or BT fibre optic connection was fast? Think again; Google have officially confirmed Kansas City as the first town to get their 1GB/sec Google Fiber network.

"After a careful review, today we're happy to announce that we will build our ultra high-speed network in Kansas City, Kansas," Milo Medin, Google's VP of Access Services, wrote on the Official Google Blog.

"We've signed a development agreement with the city, and we'll be working closely with local organisations, businesses, and universities to bring a next-generation web experience to the community."

Kansas City residents will be able to use the network from early next year, with the service spreading out to other US cities after the trial run.

There truly is no place like home if you live in Kansas City.

While having wireless access to your broadband at home allows for a significant amount of freedom to roam about the place, this comes at a price.

Running your internet connection through a wireless connection will slow you down by an average of 30%, according to a new study by network measurement firm Epitiro. One million tests were carried out for the study, covering 14,000 wi-fi connections in the UK, US, Spain and Italy.

While this is a significant drop, the same research also shows that people don't really mind - they would rather be free to take their laptops around their homes even if this means a slower connection.

"People are voting with their feet and trading speed for the benefits of mobility," Iain Wood of Epitiro told BBC News. He added that most people don't really notice this drop in quality because their web tasks are not that complicated: "Most of us do e-mailing and web surfing and for these things there is precious little difference between the 50Mb/s services and an 8Mb/s service."

But as we are increasingly getting into the habit of more data-hungry tasks, such as downloading video or streaming TV content, we will start to notice the difference. It might be worth keeping an old-fashioned cable handy for such tasks.

In the ads on TV, broadband comes in like rays of light from the sky. Songs are downloaded in seconds, and videos are streamed without the slightest hiccup. Maybe you are one of the lucky ones whose real life broadband experience is similar to this - but for me it's a good week if my broadband hasn't gone on strike at least once.

The providers are working on the issue - laying new cable as fast as they can - but in the meantime there is a significant gap between the broadband quality that is promised us, and reality. According to findings from communications watchdog Ofcom, we are getting half the broadband speed the providers are promising us.

The average broadband speed received in Britain is now 6.2 Mbps (megabits per second), but the providers are advertising that we should be getting 13.8Mb, on average. This is a significant gap, and now Ofcom wants the internet providers to change their advertising to reflect the issue in a more truthful light.

Advertising rules
At the moment, providers are telling the customer the maximum speed they could get, but this remains a distant dream for most of us.

"The research shows that ISPs need to do more to ensure they are giving customers clear and accurate information about the services they provide and the factors that may affect the actual speeds customers will receive," said Ed Richards, CEO of Ofcom. 1,700 homes were tested to reach Ofcom's conclusions, looking at 11 broadband packages from the UK's seven largest providers.

Virgin Media was the only network able to deliver anything close to its maximum promised speed, as Virgin benefits from a relatively new cable network. While network expansion is a priority for BT and the likes, much work still needs to be done. Only 22% of Britons have fibre-optic broadband access at the moment.

Trouble on the line
Things are however moving in the right direction: 6.2 Mbps average is better than the 5.2 Mbps average which was the case in 2009. But again this is only averages - many of us are still getting speeds of a meagre 2 Mbps.

While at first glance it seems like a good idea to force providers to tell us the truth, in reality there are problems. The speed of your broadband depends on where you live, and how close you are to the exchange. If providers were forced to give average figures, they could start cherry-picking customers to boost their figures, John Petter, managing director BT Retail's consumer business told the Guardian: "Enforcing typical speed ranges is also dangerous as it could encourage more ISPs to cherry-pick customers who will increase their average, leaving customers in rural and suburban areas under-served. That would encourage digital exclusion rather than tackle it."

But something needs to be done, because the study showed that while broadband speeds are getting higher, so are providers' promises. 24% of UK fixed-line residential broadband connections had an advertised speed of above 'up to' 10Mbps in May 2010, compared to just 8% in April 2009, the report shows. In 2009, 58% of people received the speeds they were promised, but this figure drops to 45% in the more recent study. This means fewer people are getting what they thought they were buying - and this matter has nothing to do with digging ditches for cable and everything to do with advertising.

Powerline networking is becoming an ever-more convenient way to manage a consistent connection to the internet at home without having unsightly Ethernet cables running along the walls, utilising the electrical wiring of your house to throw data around instead. Devolo are taking the concept to a whole other level with their dLAN 500 AVplus kit, capable of transfer rates of 500 Mbps.

Devolo have achieved this super-fast transfer speed by widening the kit's frequency range and employing a higher modulation rate, to the point where the dLAN 500 AVplus kit can now stream multiple 3D sources around the home. Data prioritisation means that video and voice streams remain stable, even if multiple users are connected to the network simultaneously too.

Fully-backwards compatible with older Devolo powerline kit, the dLAN 500 AVplus will be available by the summer for around 170 Euros.

We take a quick look in the video above.

Cisco are readying the launch of a new broadband router, the Linksys E4200. While routers often aren't the most exciting gadget in the home, the E4200 has enough media-savvy features to make it the perfect starting point for any HD entertainment streams.

Delivering up to 450Mbps over a 5GHz signal, the E4200 makes use of 3x3 antenna tech to give consistently strong wireless signal values, as well as making use of MIMO technology to use the very walls of your home to boost wireless strength.

4 Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports and 1 Gigabit Ethernet WAN port feature, while the E4200 also intelligently prioritises video and voice traffic to give stutter-free movie playback and VOIP calls.

The video prioritisation looks set to come into its own when paired with the router's USB port, allowing an external hard-drive to be connected to the E4200, sharing any stored content on board across the entire network as an ad-hoc media centre.

Jens Hofmeister, Director Product Management, at Cisco Consumer said: "There has been a shift in the way people use the internet. It has changed from being a source of information to a portal for entertainment. People want to be connected at all times via their iPads, internet enable TV, Blu-ray players, game consoles and smartphones to stream, store and share vast amounts of media. In response to this, Cisco has drawn on its innovation heritage to equip consumers with the right tools to enjoy a better wireless entertainment experience."

Due on sale in early April, you'll be able to pick up the E4200 for £169. Scroll down for some images of the router.

Broadband has firmly established its place in our hearts, with fast internet, online shopping and Google now shining as our most appreciated innovations of the last decade.

But while the internet gives, it also causes aggravation: Facebook, pop-up ads and Twitter are among the top five most annoying innovations, according to a study of 2,200 people carried out by consultancy group The Foundation.

The winners
New rewards (and problems) for our times, in other words, as a decade ago, just over a quarter of the population had the internet at home. Nearly all of them had to endure slow dial-up connections, meaning that while the internet was there, it was a completely different experience than it is today. Remember watching as pictures loaded, dripping down the screen in slow motion? Online shopping may have existed back then, but few of us had the patience to deal with it.

Things are different now, though, with 73% of the population having the internet at home, according to the Office for National Statistics' figures from last year. Most of this is now broadband.

Charlie Dawson, partner at The Foundation, said:

"Home broadband was the winner, perhaps surprising if you thought innovation was all about shiny new gadgets. It's a reminder of how useful broadband has become for most people in the UK. It allows us to do lots of things more quickly, more effectively and with a lot less effort, from shopping to dating to finding stuff out."

The 10 most appreciated innovations:
1. Home broadband
2. Online shopping
3. Google
4. Chip and Pin
5. Digital cameras/photography
6. Online comparison sites
7. Community recycling
8. Health labelling on foods
9. Low-cost air travel
10. Consumer GPS/Sat-Nav

While the internet is the top entry, it is also a key component of five more entries which would not be what they are today without cyberspace. Online shopping, Google, comparison sites, budget flying and community recycling - all these have been enabled by the internet. Broadband is clearly not only our favourite innovation of the decade, but possibly up there with the game-changing inventions in human history.

The losers
While broadband topped the poll by significant margin, with half of respondents giving it top ranking, the list of negatives was less straightforward. Still, reality TV and Facebook were both labelled worst innovation of the last decade by almost one in five respondents.

The fact that social networks feature so highly on the list could suggest these things are fleeting fads, but it could also be a reflection on the demographics of the survey. Either way, social networks as a gateway to the internet is in its infancy, and are likely to keep moving from a focus on entertainment to becoming an integral part of internet life.

Irritation and time-wasting was cited as the top reasons behind the resentment rankings, lining up with usefulness and time-saving being key factors for the favourites. Money saving was less a factor, while only 28% said cutting edge technology was a key issue.

The 10 most resented innovations:
1. Reality TV
2. Facebook and similar
3. Pop-up advertising
4. Twitter
5. IVR/Interactive voice response on telephones
6. Congestion charging
7. Paid-for plastic bags
8. DVD membership schemes
9. Tracker mortgages
10. Public bike schemes

While some items on the list make a lot of sense - for example broadband has opened the door on the online world in a way not possible with dial-up - other entries are a bit more confusing. Take public bike schemes for instance: it's not like it's mandatory so those who don't like it can avoid it, ditto bags-for-life at the supermarket.

Some items on the list are hard to avoid even if you don't take part, like Facebook. The congestion charge leaves people little choice, assuming they feel it is actually necessary to take a car into central London in the first place. But some of the items on the 'hated' list actually cancel each other out: don't like the congestion charge? Rent a bike. Don't like reality TV? Join a DVD membership scheme. Sorted.

A good internet connection is becoming so important to us that we are becoming willing to pay more for a house with a great connection, according to a study.

69% of respondents said they would be put off from buying a house if it lacked a fast broadband connection, according to ispreview.co.uk, which spoke to 733 UK residents. Half would pay more for a house with faster connectivity than the home they currently own.

Broadband is now "critically important" to their home lives, 74% of respondents said, with only 2% claiming it was "not important" at all.

According to telecoms regulator Ofcom's data as of May 2010, the average broadband download speed in the UK is 5.2 megabytes per second. Yet in ISPreview.co.uk's poll, only 37% of people described their broadband performance as "good".

(via Silicon Republic)

Superfast 100 Mbps broadband has hit 150,000 new homes thanks to Virgin Media. Residents of Hatfield, Cheshunt, Treforest, Pentwyn and Southport will now have access to the fibre optic network.

"From establishing the UK's first ever broadband service to the launch of 100Mb just ten years later, Virgin Media has led the greatest developments in digital Britain," said Jon James, executive director of broadband at Virgin Media.

"We've invested many billions of private money in order to build a growing network that already passes approximately 13 million homes across the UK. We're racing to get these ultrafast speeds across this entire area as fast as we can to meet demand."

Click here for more info.

Think your broadband internet connection is slow? Think again. Spare a thought this afternoon for the residents of Railway Hill in Cantebury, Kent. They've just been given the dubious honour of having been named Britain's slowest street for broadband, averaging a paltry 0.13 Mbps.

With the nation's average speed sitting somewhere around the 6.21 Mbps mark, Railway Hill is nearly 60 times slower than the national average.

Railway Hill? More like Snailway Hill!

"With average download speeds only marginally faster than dial-up, Railway Hill in Kent has really hit the buffers," said Alex Buttle, director of broadband comparison website Top10.com. "Given that we're now in 2011 and elsewhere in the country people are enjoying download speeds in the high double digits, this is simply unacceptable and reinforces the broadband lottery that currently reigns in the UK.

"Broadband providers need to do all they can to ensure such cripplingly slow speeds are rectified and that these streets of shame are brought into the 21st century as soon as possible."

The top 20 broadband blackspots are as follows:

1. Railway Hill, Canterbury, Kent : 0.13 Mbps
2. Tewkesbury Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex: 0.14 Mbps
3. Derwent Avenue, Barnet, Hertfordshire: 0.15 Mbps
4. Baker Crescent, Dartford, Kent: 0.15 Mbps
5. Upperby Road, Carlisle, Cumbria: 0.16 Mbps
6. Heathfield Road, Ayr, Ayrshire: 0.19 Mbps
7. Salisbury Terrace, Frome, Somerset: 0.20 Mbps
8. Douglas Road, Spixworth, Norwich, Norfolk: 0.20 Mbps
9. Hereford Road, Blackburn, Lancashire: 0.21 Mbps
10. Shelley Crescent, Shirley, Solihill, West Midlands: 0.21 Mbps
11. Harwood Close, Pulborough, West Sussex: 0.22 Mbps
12. Shore View, Hampton Hargate, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: 0.23 Mbps
13. Luttlemarsh, Walton Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire:0.24 Mbps
14. Elderwood Way, Tuffley, Gloucester, Gloucestershire: 0.25 Mbps
15. Back Lane, Bucks Horn Oak, Farnham, Surrey: 0.25 Mbps
16. Station Road, Arundel, West Sussex: 0.25 Mbps
17. Castle Boulevard, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: 0.26 Mbps
18. Brick Kiln Road, Little Plumstead, Norfolk: 0.26 Mbps
19. Old Chirk Road, Gobowen, Oswestry, Shropshire: 0.28 Mbps
20. Amberley Road, Hartwell, Northampton, Northamptonshire: 0.29 Mbps