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BT Infinity goes Totally Unlimited, ditches throttling

Ease up off the throttle, BT. BT Infinity is getting rid of limits on how much Internet browsing you can do with new Totally Unlimited broadband deals.

Internet service provider BT is scrapping traffic management -- the practice of restricting your broadband speed at busy times, also known as traffic shaping, or throttling -- on many of its broadband packages. And it's also doing away with 'fair use' restrictions, which are limits on how much you can download in a given period.

Only the cheaper entry-level broadband deals will now suffer from caps on usage, but anyone on the beefier Totally Unlimited broadband packages can download as much as they want no matter what time it is, making the most of their high speeds.

BT has also dropped its prices. BT Infinity now starts at £23 for download speeds of up to 38Mbps, while unlimited BT Infinity 2 is £26 for speeds of up to 76Mbps. Doubling your speed for only three quid more -- it's like buying extra-massive popcorn at the cinema.

It's a bold move from BT, flying in the face of complaints from other ISPs that we're all eating too much data with our cloud this, streaming that, and downloading t'other. TalkTalk and Virgin Media are among those that routinely manage traffic, while Sky blamed its recent sluggish broadband performance on the number of new customers coming along and hogging all the precious bandwidth. Incidentally, it was recently revealed that Britain's average broadband speed is slower than some Eastern European countries

What's the catch? 

Is there a catch? There's always a catch, old friend, and in this case it's that you have to sign a new 18-month contract. Even if you're a short-timer with just days left on your contract you have to re-up for a year and a half. Meanwhile, new customers get the first six months free.

Although the Totally Unlimited packages live up to their name, you'll still be capped on the entry-level £13 deal and Infinity 1, which costs £18 per month.

BT has also revealed BT Cloud, offering free online storage for broadband subscribers.

[Source: CNET]

BT to offer free YouView box with one-year broadband contract, £49 for existing customers

If you're not quite comfortable shelling out £299 for BT's YouView box, then you're in luck. Starting October 26th, the hardware will be free for new Infinity broadband subscribers who ink contracts that are one year or longer. Instead of relying on cable, the Humax-built device uses both aerial and internet connections to deliver content from more than 100 digital TV and radio channels including Channels 4 and 5, the BBC and ITV. With the IPTV box, users can sift through content that's aired in the past seven days, watch on-demand programs and record up to 300 hours of standard definition television or 125 hours of high-def video to a built-in 500GB hard drive. Current British Telecom subscribers pining for the subsidized box will be able to get their own for a £49 activation fee and a £6.95 delivery charge. Those eager for the gratis set-top solution will be able to order it online starting October 19th if they register interest with BT's website beforehand. For more details, check out the press release below.

[Source: Engadget]

BT is 'highly likely' to write off OnLive investment

HTC wrote off its entire $40 million investment in troubled cloud gaming company OnLive after the company spontaneously dissolved and reformed this weekend, and it now looks like fellow investor BT may do the same. The British telecommunications company, which purchased a 2.6 percent stake in the company in early 2010 and early exclusive access to the UK version of the service, told TechRadar that a write-off was "highly likely." Here's the full statement:

"We cannot comment on speculation about the future of OnLive, but we are keeping a close eye on developments. Questions should be directed to the company in question. BT customers who are customers of OnLive will continue to be able to access the service.

In any event, the 2.6 per cent shareholding in OnLive does not represent a significant investment for BT as a whole. We consider it highly likely that we'll have to write off our investment."

According to OnLive, the original company named OnLive is no more, as the company restructured itself using an alternative to bankruptcy called Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors (ABC) which apparently only transfers the company's assets to a new party. Under an ABC, the assignee of a company's assets is responsible for maximizing the value to creditors, but it seems like HTC and BT won't be getting much value for their buck here.

[Source: The Verge]