We are excited to announce the release of version 8 of our Control Panel interface and our new broadband network. This email details some of the new features and changes made in this latest release.

The core feature of this latest release is our new broadband network. It has been in development over the past year and has involved a massive capital investment and development time. The network sits alongside our hosting setup and will be expanded over the next year to feature additional Points of Presence and an enlarged portfolio of wholesale providers and solutions to meet the needs of all our resellers and their customers. By housing the broadband facilities alongside our hosting network we have been able to make a significant reduction in our operating costs and these have been reflected in new wholesale pricing and data caps. As well as cost savings, housing the hosting and broadband networks alongside each other means we open up lots of future options for a more converged solution encompassing, but not limited to, VoIP and Mobile solutions.

In summary here are some of the core features in this latest release:

NEW BROADBAND NETWORK

The following features are applicable to connections on our latest platform. All existing connections will switch over soon and also benefit.

• Fibre to Cabinet broadband connections are finally live on our network. They are capable of delivering download speeds of upto 40Mbps and upload speeds of upto 10Mbps. Further details explaining the technology can be found on our website at http://www.icukhosting.co.uk/broadband/fibre_to_the_cabinet.asp
• 21CN Annex M ADSL 2+ connections are now available providing higher upload speeds of upto 2.5Mbps by sacrificing some of the potential download speeds.
• New lower pricing applied to all new orders. For confirmation hover over ‘Admin’, hover over ‘Wholesale Pricing’, and select the broadband option from the menu.
• Higher caps for existing ‘legacy’ connections migrating across. This ensures your wholesale price remains the same, but you get more for your money.
• New integration with BT Wholesale – we still have lots more to automate and include over the coming months to give you greater visibility and control over your connections.
• New resilient radius cluster with support for multiple realms.
• New resilient DNS cluster.
• New broadband checker for BT ADSL, FTTC and C&W connections.
• New advanced broadband checker which shows the full BT Wholesale output.
• New bulk broadband checker allowing you to run multiple checks across multiple lines and carriers.
• Monitor sync speed profile changes.
• Support for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
• Reverse DNS / PTR control for static and routed IP addresses.
• Improved graphical statistics showing download and upload usage.
• Improved broadband orders page is now tabbed allowing you to easily see orders based on their current status.
• Place simultaneous broadband orders.

Larger resellers can now benefit from:

• The ability to apply for their own realm (must have 300+ connections) which can be used on BT Wholesale 20CN and 21CN platforms.
• An option to apply for their own RIPE IP ranges and announce them on our network. Again, you must have significant connections to make this worthwhile and for RIPE to accept your application.
• We will soon launch a virtual pipe solution allowing large resellers to purchase bandwidth and tails from us in much the same way we do with BT Wholesale. If you have lots of light users then you might find this to be a more cost effective solution than purchasing the capped services.

Notable changes / points of order:

• We have phased out Tiscali Wholesale as an alternative LLU provider. The low demand for this product combined with the poor response times for support issues meant that they were no longer a viable solution. An email detailing our planned migration away will be sent to affected customers.
• The format which applies to the passwords on new broadband orders has changed. When placing the order you will be supplied with a dictionary password to use instead of the default format which makes use of the username. You can change this during the order process or make alterations once placed.
• IPv6 addresses are available free of charge and are supplied as a minimum /48.
• These changes will only apply to BT based products. Cable and Wireless remains on our old network setup for the time being, but orders are still being accepted and processed accordingly.

TELECOM ENHANCEMENTS

• Improved graphical statistics

HOSTING ENHANCEMENTS

• Increased mail limits allowing you to send and receive messages upto 25MB in size. The previous limit was set at 15MB.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Added to the ‘customers’ section of the control panel are export facilities allowing you to download individually or en-mass the details you store on file.
• We have replaced all the old Flash charts in the control panel with a Javascript solution. This now works in all browsers, including mobile browsers, and is significantly quicker to load.

We hope that you benefit from the effort and capital expenditure that has gone into this latest release. We welcome any feedback you have surrounding these new developments and look forward to releasing a further update to you shortly as we march on with our development lists.