100Mbp/s Leased Lines for £600 per month

Our PR Company Green have just issued the following to the press on our behalf;

A leased lines price war is set to break out in Leeds as CCS Leeds, the leading independent premier leased line, web hosting and broadband internet provider, announced plans to offer 100Mb high speed internet connections in the city for just £600.00 per month.

The announcement follows the opening of a second city centre data centre bringing cheaper connectivity to companies based in Leeds – this means that CCS will offer cost savings of more than 50 per cent against rivals such as Virgin Media Business and BT.

The new data centre on The Headrow, follows on from the successful launch of the company’s primary data centre on Leeds Ring Road earlier this year which can house 4,800 servers and is backed up by an emergency uninterruptible power supplies and generators.

Managing director Peter Knapp said: “Many companies in Leeds city center complain about the high costs of 100Mb leased lines and the fact that there are so few suppliers competing for their business. We have crunched the numbers and have come up with a viable business model that will allow us to offer leased lines for as little as £600.00 per month.

“Broadband connectivity is now a vital utility for all businesses and they expect to get similar deals that they would expect from the more competitive gas and electricity markets – that’s where CCS steps in”

The new city centre data centre will ensure that CCS can deliver quality leased lines for a secure and reliable internet and telephony service to companies 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Leased lines offer a symmetrical speed which means that the download and upload speed is significantly better than traditional ADSL lines and a lot more reliable as they come with a service level agreement and guaranteed up time.

Mr Knapp said: “The new data centre will be backed up by our main hub at Seacroft which gives us the space, power, carrier availability and most importantly gives our staff instant access to server equipment to ensure it runs uninterrupted 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.”

CCS Leeds is an independent Internet Service Provider (ISP) which has been delivering services to business and residential users in the UK since 1998.

Why not give us a call on 0113 294669 to discuss further?

EU cookie law 'not consistent'

Implementation of the law relating to the use of cookies within the European Union has not been consistent, due partially to changing advice from the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

This is according to technology editor at the Guardian Charles Arthur, who noted not all websites have successfully adapted to the law, which came into force on May 26 after the end of a year-long grace period designed to allow firms to change their websites.

"Some sites have implemented it, some sites have not. Some sites have been sort of implementing it," he says, explaining the aim of the EU change is to ensure cookies do not track a user's information without explicit consent.

The ICO updated its guidance on the issue on May 25 to state that implied consent can be assumed in some instances - a change from its previous advice from December 2011.

Arthur said there is a need for an 'anomalised version of cookies which don't collect personal information', adding the setting to not allow third-party cookies that is featured in many browsers is a 'pretty good compromise'.

In the article he quotes Stephen Groom, head of marketing and privacy law at the law firm Osborne Clarke "This is a striking shift. Previously the ICO said that implied consent would be unlikely to work. Now it says that implied consent is a valid form of consent.

"Just six months ago the ICO said general awareness of the functions and use of cookies was simply not high enough for websites to look to rely entirely in the first instance on implied consent.

"Now it tells us that 'implied consent has always been a reasonable proposition in the context of data protection law' and that it remains so in the context of storage of information or access to information using cookies and similar devices."

AT CCS we like the fact that "implied consent" shifts responsibility to the user rather than the website operator, and we know many of our clients will welcome the fact that their websites will comply with the new EU directives which came into law a year ago.

However, we also believe the cookie law is a bad one. Why? Because cookies have come to be a crucial part of e-commerce - on which many of our clients depend - and trading online without using cookies for analytics or various marketing is a bit like asking a bricks and mortar retailer not to have a shop on the high street.

What do you think?

Leeds to get 80-plus Mbp broadband

Leeds is to get extra cash to ensure it has the best broadband infrastructure in the country under the Government’s Broadband Delivery UK programme.

BDUK’s main goals are to give all users in the UK satisfactory broadband connections of at least 2Mbps and to bring next-generation broadband technology to at least 90 per cent of users by 2015.

The BDUK project comes with allocated funding that is to be distributed to local councils and county governing bodies so that they can implement their own respective broadband plans.

Successful cities will get funding to provide users with fibre broadband connections that provide speeds in the range of 80-100Mbps. In Yorkshire they include Bradford, Leeds and Sheffield.

The government has also named 27 cities that have been shortlisted to receive funding for their projects which includes York.

In a statement, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "These ultra-fast speeds will allow more cities in the UK to compete with the fastest in the world, bringing new opportunities for growth, the development of high-tech industries and the transformation of public services."

Elsewhere, a new project between BT and Leeds City Council aims to help more residents access the internet.

BT and Leeds City Council (LCC) are partnering on a three-year project to bring the benefits of broadband to people who have never been online.

The Get IT Together initiative, which is part-funded by the two organisations and delivered by the charity Citizens Online, aims to make participants more confident about using computers and accessing the internet.

As a Race Online 2012 (RO2012) member, BT has pledged to help get another 100,000 adults to use the web for the first time by the end of the year.

According to the RO2012 campaign, 1.9 million UK citizens have gained the ability to access the internet since 2009, but 8.1 million people have still never used the technology.

LCC chief executive Tom Riordan added: "In the fast-moving digital world it is important that people are not left behind and that all have the opportunity to reap the benefits of being online."

Windows 8 - Free Trial

Microsoft are offering Window's users the opportunity to download a pre-release version of their new Windows 8 operating system.

This new version of Windows is said to be the most revolutionary since Microsoft released Windows 95, some 17 years ago (is it really that long?), and they are keen to encourage people to buy into the new operating system.

This trial version is officially called the ‘Release Preview’ and can be downloaded from this link. As expected there are 64 and 32 bit versions as well as the option to download an ISO version to write to either a DVD or USB stick.

However, Microsoft are keen to stress that this is not the finished version and that there are some bugs which have yet to be ironed out. Users downloading the trial should make sure that they do not use it as their primary operating system and should always backup all of their important data before performing the upgrade to the Release Preview.

Microsoft goes on to say “Windows 8 Release Preview is stable and has been thoroughly tested, but it's not the finished product. Your PC could crash and you could lose important files. You should back up your data and you shouldn't test Windows 8 Release Preview on your primary home or business PC."

Users should also be aware that this trial version will expire before the finished version is made publically available so the only way to continue using the operating system is to purchase it. That said, no prices or an official release date have been announced as yet.

Here is a video which shows you what to expect from Windows 8