BE Broadband Encourages Peer-to-Peer Networks with Member Rewards

We've launched a site to reward our members when they recommend the service to their network of friends.

The 'Spread the Love' initiative gives BE members the chance to earn £30 credit for every new member they get to sign up to BE. Members will receive an extra £30 (a total of £210) if six friends join on their recommendation, equivalent to a free year on the BE Unlimited package!

Members have until 31 December 2009 to get their 6 friends to register. The Spread the Love initiative will be available on a new section of the BE site: https://spreadthelove.bethere.co.uk/

“Peer-to-peer relationships are built into the way the online world works . We hear word-of-mouth recommendations by our members almost every day, so we wanted to say thanks. Hopefully our members will get all of their friends to sign up, and everyone will have a very merry Christmas with BE.”

Tom Williams, Head of Operations at BE Broadband

We're asking our members to share the details of the initiative with their friends, so that they understand how the rewards work. New members can also recommend friends themselves and be eligible for the £30 reward.

So what are you waiting for? Spread the Love!

"Three strikes" and the impact on BE and our customers

With the publication of the digital economy bill on Friday, we have taken a look at the recent proposals from a broadband perspective and spoken to our members.

When Lord Mandelson originally announced the intention to progress a three strikes plan to work against file-sharing in the UK, it understandably sparked a lot of debate.

The main concern we've heard is that it's open to errors, with the risk that innocent customers could be penalised. Broadband routers can be hacked, shared houses are impossible to manage, and businesses that offer internet (cafes, for example) would find the time or cost burden unworkable. We've not heard many facts about the appeal process, so can only guess at the impact this would have on customers, businesses and our customer service team.

There's also a wider question about what constitutes file sharing. The act of sharing a file can be done via so many methods, so which of these would be included and which wouldn't? Email, FTP, newsgroups, BitTorrent, instant messaging and online digital storage (Mandelson’s ‘cyberlockers’) are the most well-known but more will emerge. There seems to be a lack of technical understanding about what file sharing actually is, because most of these systems couldn't be monitored.

We prefer a future that benefits from technology advances rather than trying to shut it down. We think the smart people in modern creative industries are the ones that are adapting to the new world. Rather than building big, expensive software that people can't afford, more people are making apps that cost little but offer great value and offer updates that illegal software can't. There are examples in other industries too, like music with legal downloads and streaming, or legal movie rental services through PCs and games consoles.

Our members have never asked us to police their service, and sadly don't have enough information to believe this system can work.

Congestion Announcement

Hi guys,

This weekend from 8am on Saturday 21st November to 8am on Sunday 22nd November you may experience some congestion on your broadband service due to major trackside maintenance work happening on our core fibre links.

We’re really sorry for the inconvenience this will cause and will do our best to keep the disruption to a minimum. This is network wide so may affect all our members, we’re really sorry!

Kind regards,

- Everyone @ BE

BE Social Birmingham

You may have heard about the first BE Socials that recently ran in Manchester and London. These were informal meetups to involve BE members in our plans for the next 12 months, to get feedback on current service and have some fun meeting new people.

The events were so successful that we’re keen to keep them going and we've asked BE members where the next one should be. The overwhelming response was that we should hold the next BE Social in Birmingham.

The event will take place from 6-8pm on Wednesday 18th November at the The Wellington pub in Birmingham.

You can sign up and reservce your place here: http://besocialbirmingham.eventbrite.com/

We look forward to seeing you there!

- Everyone @ BE