Press & PR

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are being put under pressure to monitor customers' internet usage in an effort to stem online piracy.

According to Mark Jackson, editor of ISPreview.co.uk, placing this burden on small providers may result in firms having to hike up prices or risk going out of business.

"The ISP would need to log utterly unbelievable amounts of data and employ a team able to deal with and investigate such requests," he adds.

Mr Thompson also stipulates that this would essentially require ISPs to become a security service, something that small firms have neither the manpower nor the legal precedent to do.

He predicts that government proposals will soon come in to effect that will place a greater burden on ISPs to sift through customers' data. However, he also offers an ethical caveat to such a scheme.

He asks: "Is it right to open a customer's 'mail' and snoop into their online activity?"

Vonage's VoIP services use digital technology to transmit voice data over the internet securely, allowing people to make cheap calls throughout the UK and abroad.