Monthly Archives: November 2009

‘Happy Hour’ Cuts Down Tariffs, Offer results in Cheap Energy

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According to the Government’s strategy of equipping every house of UK with a ‘Smart Meter’ by the year 2020, it is planning to offer several lucrative “time-of-day” tariffs to the energy consumers of Britain, on installation of Smart Meters through Key players in the field of Energy supplying.

Energy providers like Npower and others are likely to offer more flexible and discounted tariffs to the consumers that will empower them to save some extra expenditure on their energy bills, in the meanwhile, it will also promote usage of energy at less popular times. This, process is expected to be resulted in maintaining an equilibrium in terms of energy consumption levels in the UK, through out the day.

Giant energy supplier, Npower is already trialling a new “Time-of-day” Tariff in the Midlands and it is getting positive response from the users. According to the Npower spokesperson, Nicholas McHugh, “We will probably see the demise of Economy 7 and Economy 10 tariffs.”

New “Happy Hours” are likely to offer more flexible discounted periods to the consumers, as compared to the existing Economy7 and Economy10 Tariff plans, which provide only a limited periods of discounted energy. Npower is planning to introduce a “traffic light” system, under which the Smart Meters will demonstrate the cost of energy in Red, Amber or Green colours.

Chris Eagle, commercial manager at Energychoices.co.uk, said: “Smart meters are good news for the consumer. Several studies have shown that, people are more likely to reduce their energy consumption if they can see it clearly.” Adding more to his statement, he said with exceitement “Customers are always attracted by discounted energy and the traffic light system could give them a new level of control over their usage.”

O2 ex director will now head 2ergo

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The ex director of media sales at O2, James Macdonald has made a switch to 2ergo, the mobile marketing specialist. He will be assuming the post of head of media and entertainment in the new company.

While at O2 Macdonald’s role included the responsibility for setting up the division and developing the O2 Media proposition across the UK market. Macdonald was the head of mobile in the media agency named Unanimis before this.

Macdonald said: “2ergo is an ambitious company, which is increasing its global footprint almost daily after a succession of strategic acquisitions last year. My aim is to develop 2ergo’s already strong relationships and make the company the mobile partner of choice within the media and entertainment industry.”

2ergo group managing director, Chris Brassington added: “Companies across the media and entertainment sectors need to embrace and take advantage of mobile technology. Mobile is fast becoming a critical communications channel and the pre-eminent way of engaging and drawing audiences closer to the brand. 2ergo has considerable experience of optimising and monetizing media content for mobile and James’ experience will be invaluable as we continue to build on our record of success in the media and entertainment market.”

The mobile marketing company, 2ergo works with a number of brands and assist them in formulating strategies through application development and interactive messaging campaigns.

Individual interests of the members defeat the responsible tourism commitment

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The Association Of Independent tour operators (AITO) has been lashed for not conceding to the norms set to promote responsible tourism in UK. Responsible tourism is needed for the greener and healthier environment but the AITO fails to accomplish the drive as the members of the association are not ready to give up their own commercial interests for the common interest of the group. Rather they are putting their own commercial interests first.

Delivering a speech at the AITO conference in Cochin, Kerala, professor of responsible tourism management and director of the International Center for Responsible Tourism, professor Harold Goodwin, said that a remarkable number of tourists are getting increasingly concerned about the growing climatic disorders and environmental issues. Stats state that 38% of the tourists in 2008 expressed their guilt for the impact their holidays had on the local region. The number was only 17% in 1999.

He also blamed the association in his speech and said that it is the association that acts indifferent about the issue. He also believed that the association is also losing a commercial advantage by not demonstrating that its members have greater responsible tourism credentials.

Goodwin said: “Consumers don’t want to feel guilty about the product they’ve been sold, they don’t want to come back and think they’ve made the destination worse by going there.

“It (AITO’s dedication to responsible tourism) allows you to compete on something other than price and you will lose if you’re trying to compete on price with the big guys.

“AITO comprises the most sustainable collection of travel companies but you’re not getting the message out there; you’re not doing extra marketing.

“If you don’t do it you’re going to be eclipsed by the ABTAs and the FTOs. You need to share that good news story with the consumers so they can respond to that.”

AITO’s responsible tourism committee’s chairman and the managing director of Rainbow Holidays, Roger Diski said that the drive nosedived because of the lack of consensus and coordination amongst the association’s members. He said the association allowed the commercial interests of the members to overule responsible tourism commitments.

He further added: “I don’t think that particularly means the responsible tourism committee isn’t doing its job; we’ve been given an impossible task and companies such as the Co-operative, TUI and Thomas Cook are now going to steal the agenda.

“There’s not enough cash for the AITO responsible tourism committee budget.

“When we’ve got 160 company members all promoting themselves and their own messages, they’re not really going to contribute to an AITO message, particularly when many of the other companies are their competitors.”

AITO chairman, Derek Moore also acceded to the fact that some of the association’s members had been slow to accept the healthy and ethical travel ways and said the association is working to change this.

He added: “Some members of AITO in the past have perhaps been less convinced over the benefits of taking a more responsible approach.

“Over the next 12 months we want to strongly promote to our members the idea of being accredited in the AITO responsible tourism accreditation scheme. We want to bring that more to the fore in what AITO does.”

Tesco announces to offer broadband bundles with home phones

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Tesco, one of the largest and most sought after British Retailer that offers a number of remarkable services to the UK customers, has recently made a new announcement about its five-year deal with Cable and Wireless as its wholesale broadband network provider. The giant is offering this service for the first time wherein it is bundling its broadband service with home phones.

Tesco also revealed that though the company observed a remarkable addition of the new customers in its kitty in the year 2008. But there has been a regular churn out as well. This shows the customers have not been keeping happy either with the service or with the experience. The churn out rate as disclosed by the company is around 20 per cent per year.

The company has announced that now as it come by an opportunity to sharpen and improvise its services with in the broadband market, it will tender simpler and more competitive offers to grab more and more customers. It also plans to secure a number one position amongst the Tesco users in the broadband and home phone market.

Lance Batchelor, chief executive officer of Tesco Telecoms and Tesco Mobile said: “We’re delighted to be partnering with Cable and Wireless for our broadband and home phone services. We share a commitment to providing excellent customer service and the new network capabilities will allow Tesco Broadband to offer enhanced services for our customers across the UK.”

Cable and Wireless chief executive officer Jim Marsh added: “This is a landmark contract. We’re delighted to be helping one of the most powerful brands in the UK to enhance its broadband offerings and we’re thrilled to be providing the service. We’re absolutely focused on putting our customers’ requirements at the heart of our business and delivering great service – clearly, this is an approach that resonates with Tesco.”

The industry heavyweights also appreciated Tesco’s move. Michael Phillips, the product director of BroadbandChoices.co.uk said that Tesco’s plans to tender bundled services were “ambitious” but that it would need to differentiate itself in order to secure a grounding in the market.

Phillips said: “This is an exciting development in Tesco’s plans to become a leading consumer broadband supplier, allowing them for the first time to offer bundled packages of broadband and home phone services.

“Our own research shows that customer service is a key determinant in choosing a phone or broadband provider and Tesco has certainly got off to a strong start with their award winning mobile services. We trust that the Cable and Wireless deal will give them a wholesale broadband partner that can deliver the performance and reliability that broadband users are increasingly demanding, coupled with a consumer-facing brand they can have confidence in.

He added: “Tesco’s ambitious plans for broadband and bundled services bode well for consumers since it should increase competition in the market and put pressure on all ISPs to focus on the importance of customer service. Bundled packages have increased in popularity amongst consumers over the past two years, so it will be interesting to see how Tesco differentiates itself in a bid to win more custom.”

BT committed to faster broadband despite falling profits

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BT still continued to be the UK’s fastest broadband service, despite of the falling profits of 45% in the first-half of the financial year.

Telecoms giant BT will keep on investing in high-speed broadband while it will also work for bringing down costs along with its redundancy programme. It has been stated by BT that around 15,000 jobs would be cut this year. Apart from this, it is also planning to cost-cut total £1.5bilion this financial year as stated by the company in the its half-year results today.

Ian Livingston, BT’s chief executive, said: “We are investing in the future of the business with an enhanced and accelerated programme of fibre deployment and faster broadband speeds, all within our capital expenditure plans.”

BT is now focusing to upgrade its network to the latest ADSL2+ technology supporting 20Mb broadband. By spring 2011, around 75% of UK homes and businesses will be able to access this. The company is also planning to roll out the next-generation superfast fibre broadband in few parts of the UK.

Michael Phillips, product director at Broadbandchoices.co.uk, said: “Today’s results are better than many analysts expected. The investment BT is putting into rolling out is 20Mb broadband service is already reaping benefits for many consumers who are customers or BT and other telecoms providers who are using the upgraded network.

Brits taking financial and safety risks with their boilers

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There are many households who can face carbon monoxide poisoning as they are not getting their boilers checked annually while a section of people lack any boiler insurance.

By avoiding this checking of boilers, the Brits are taking a financial and safety risk.

According to a research conducted by the uSwitch, around 42% of households do not get their boiler checked every year. It is very important to get the boilers checked from time to time so as to avoid the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Boiler insurance comprises of an annual service. Thus, by going for boiler insurance, one can feel relaxed about the safety of the boiler.

Moreover, there are around 65% of households without any kind of heating or boiler cover in place. These households are taking a financial as well as safety risk one in three boilers breaks down within six years of being installed. This can cost up to £1,200 for replacing the four key parts.

Chris Eagle, said: “Boiler insurance is a great way to spread the cost of call-outs and repairs, and it usually includes an annual service so you can get peace of mind that your boiler is in good condition.

“ British Gas offers a range of HomeCare boiler insurance packages, starting from just £13 a month, and if you sign up before 31 December you can get one month free.

According to the Gas Safe Register, 14 people have died because of carbon monoxide poisoning while 234 faced health problems after being exposed to it.

Scottish & Southern Energy offering £12 bonus to Gas prepay customers

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Now the gas prepayment meter customers will get an early £12 Christmas present from the Scottish & Southern Energy.

This winter, credits worth £3.5million will be issued by the Energy giant Scottish and Southern Energy to around 300,000 gas prepayment meter customers. This is all done by the Scottish and Southern energy for helping the people in bringing down their energy costs.

The main purpose behind the designing of this credit is to support all the gas prepayment tariff customers to bring down their energy costs specially during the months in which gas consumption is more.

The companies supplying energy under the brands Southern Electric, Scottish Hydro Electric, Swalec, Atlantic Electric and Gas etc will inform all the customers regarding the addition of £12 credit to their gas meter.

Alistair Phillips-Davies, energy supply director at Scottish & Southern, said: “This credit is designed to help all our gas prepayment tariff customers during the months in which they use most gas.”

The prepayment tariffs of the Scottish and Southern energy typically cost customers £18 more a year as compared to its standard tariffs. This is because of additional costs associated with providing and maintaining prepayment meters, the company says.

In 2006, the extra charges were removed by the Scottish & Southern on its electricity prepayment tariffs when they were “equalised” with its standard credit tariffs.

Chris Eagle, commercial manager at Energychoices.co.uk, said: “This is good news for Scottish & Southern’s gas prepayment meters, and will go some way to cut their winter energy costs.

“However, ideally we would like to see the gas prepayment tariff ‘equalised’ with standard credit tariffs too.”

BA CEO to meet with Unite to check strike ballot

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The union of crew members at BA, Unite has embarked upon a strike ballot today. Unite has already declared about its intentions in its earlier announcements. The strike ballot has agitated the BA’s top management, in the wake of which the CEO, Willie Walsh has called for a meeting with the joint general secretaries of the Unite union later this week.

The company at the same time is not reluctant in implementing the controversial structural changes it had announced not long past. The changes are touted as one of the primary reasons of the unrest amongst the crew members. The members are not willing to accept them and the company, on the contrary, is all set to implement them.


Going by a statement issued by BA, the company had already started executing the changes that calls for cutting the number of staff on Boeing 747 flights from 15 to 14. There have been ‘no problems’ in the implementation of the changes so far, he concurred.


The strike ballot that has begun today is scheduled to carry on till Dec 14. After which the union sees strong possibility of strike from Dec 21, provided the ballot result reveals a majority of crew members backing stoppages.


Mr Walsh wrote to Unite’s joint leaders Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley suggesting new meeting.


The meeting called by the CEO is scheduled to take place later this week , probably at British Airways headquarters near Heathrow, divulged the BA spokesperson.


Similar meetings between the three conspicuous officials with the same agenda were also held in the past, but in vain. As they did not resolve the prolonged dispute between the crew members and the management over redundancies and savings at the loss making carrier.


The airline have been observing constant talks between the two parties for months now, but it could not serve the purpose. There were times when external help was sought from UK arbitration service ACAS to resolve the dispute. But things don’t seem to change at all.

In an recent announcement made by the airline, it has indicated about its plans to make the equivalent of 3,000 jobs redundant with staff who wished to leave or switch to part time working.


The other announcements that sparked the agitation further more include a pay freeze and the cut in staff on the 747s.


Unite concurred that it has already issued the ballot papers today to its 12,000 crew members, and is awaiting results that are due on Dec 14.

The airline also expressed its concern for the “far reaching changes” that will certainly put 747 staff under greater stress and pressure. The abominable situation will eventually have a “negative impact on health and safety” of the staff members and affect the service to passengers.


Brian Boyd, Unite’s national officer for aviation, said: “The way to deliver change is through negotiation, not imposition.


“Of course the cabin crew are angry; they care passionately about this business but feel they are not being listened to on serious matters of service delivery.


“This business is all about its customers and the crew do not want them to suffer as a result of these changes.


He added: “We ask British Airways to signal that it is willing to abandon its plans to impose change and work with us on a way forward, one which delivers for passengers, shareholders and the workforce.


“Then we could begin to tackle the roots of this damaging dispute and find a way forward.”

The union also indicated that it is in no mood to withdraw the legal action that Unite resorted to against BA.


It was refused an injunction to stop BA making the changes, but the dispute will now go to a full hearing in the New Year.


Steve Turner, also a national officer for aviation for the union, said it was “so concerned about the impact of these cuts on both crew and paying customers, that we have instructed employment specialists to establish an independent system to monitor their impact over the coming period.”


Walsh however, tried to inhibit the union from resorting to strike ballot by saying that structural change was necessary to secure long term profitability for the airline.


BA, which announced a £4.2bn merger with Iberia last week, posted a pre-tax loss of £292m for April to September earlier this month.

The airline has said it expects to make an annual loss this financial year.

British Kids Spending 130mins Online Per Day

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Recently, the UK ISP TalkTalk disclosed that around 130 minutes are spent by an average British child (aged 5-15) online per day. The research revealed that out of this 30 minutes are spent in doing things not allowed by their parents. Around one in four kids stated that their parents are completely unaware of online activity done by them.


Around 62% of children are there who used to cheat their parents by not telling anything true regarding their online behaviour. A section of children boasted that they used to hide any kind of ‘unsuitable’ Internet activity from their parents. Around 53% keep on erasing their online footprint for deleting their browser history.

As stated by the research, 44% of parents are there who are completely unaware about their child’s Internet history and do not know what kind of sites their children used to visit. On the other hand, 25% of parents are not familiar of the security level of their search engine’s content filter. As believed by kids, their parents would object 28% of their online activity.

Professor and Child Psychologist, Tanya Byron, says:

“TalkTalk’s research reveals the predicament facing Britain’s parents. We know the Internet is increasingly important in our children’s lives, but many parents are still deeply ignorant about what goes on online. Not surprisingly, too many of us panic and either try to ignore this new technology – allowing our kids to use it unsupervised – or ban our kids from using it entirely.

With this new campaign I want to encourage parents to treat the Internet as they would do any other element of looking after their kids. After all, the Internet is a human creation, populated by people, and in this sense it’s no more or less inherently dangerous than the outside world.

Think of the Internet as like a swimming pool. You want your kids to learn how to swim, but you wouldn’t just throw them into the deep end – you’d go in with them to the shallow end, get them used to the water and wearing water wings. I believe applying such offline principles to the online world makes e-parenting much less daunting and provides a solid foundation for all parents.”


This research has been used by TalkTalk for promoting its Brighter Sparks campaign which is designed mainly for providing practical parenting advice to their customers which can be used regardless of the fact how old or Internet savvy their kids are.

30GBP Marks and Spencer Voucher offered by TalkTalk for New Users

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TalkTalk is now offering its new customers £30 worth of Marks and Spencer vouchers at the time when they sign up.

This offer is valid till 4 December for those customers who sign up to a new broadband package along with the provider. Presently, TalkTalk is offering two broadband packages to the customers. One is the Essentials package which provides Internet and home phone calls at cheaper rates and the another one is the latest introduced Pro tariff which is mainly designed to be used by high end users. The customers can enjoy the Essentials package by paying just £6.49 per month. It comes along with the speeds of up to 8Mb and a download allowance of 40GB. The package also includes weekend landline calls as well as free calls to all local numbers. The customers who are using the Essentials package can also choose from a selection of monthly Boosts, from £2 a month permitting the users to increase the speed of their broadband, double their download allowance etc. Also they can avail Internet security for up to three PCs. They are also provided with an option of home phone Boosts. A latest high end package launched by TalkTalk is perfect for the customer s who are looking forward to get faster speeds. Such customers can go for this package by paying just £14.99 per month. The customers on this package can enjoy speeds of up to 24Mb along with a huge 80GB download allowance and anytime calls as well. Both packages include £11.25 a month line rental and a £29.99 installation fee. Michael Phillips, Broadbandchoices.co.uk product director, said: “TalkTalk offers real value for money, with some of the cheapest broadband and home phone bundles on the market. This offer comes at a time when more customers are looking to switch broadband provider and save money, and TalkTalk is a great choice.”