Samknows

About the site

Samknows.com is dedicated to tracking the roll-out and progress of broadband across the UK. It was created by myself, Sam Crawford, and is also maintained by Paul Buck and Ian Saunders. If you have any questions, suggestions or comments please don't hesitate to send them to us.

The site was started as a small hobbyist site after I worked at Datasouth UK on the Hampshire Broadband project. I left there in September 2003 to study for a BSc Hons in Computer Science at the University of Bath. Four years on and I have now graduated with a first-class degree, and will be returning to Canary Wharf this autumn to work as a developer of mobile computing applications.

Between 2003 and 2004 the site focussed heavily on BT's preregistration scheme. During this time 1,600 campaigns were registered with the site, and we processed 76,000 pre-registrations. After BT ended the pre-registration scheme in favour of a planned rollout scheme, the site changed direction and began to focus upon providing availability/coverage information for as many wholesale providers as possible. Nowadays we cover the availability information of over 20 broadband operators. We also provide an Availability Checker API that is used by over 120 users to power broadband checkers on their websites.

Whilst we try to ensure that we have the most up to date information available for all of the providers we list, errors do occur from time to time, so please get in touch if you spot anything glaringly wrong!



With special thanks to...

Xifos
Xifos provide fast and stable hosting services for many of the samknows.com servers in London's Docklands. They provide quality ADSL, SDSL and bonded connections to consumers and businesses. Their focus on customer service has been demonstrated to me first hand many times, with staff happily helping me out with numerous late night datacenter visits.
http://www.xifos.net
FastSurf
Fastsurf.com very kindly provide hosting for some of the services on Samknows.com. They are a leading UK ISP supplying Internet access to businesses and consumers from 512Kbps to 2Mbps. They have a dedicated team that thrives on being pushed, stretched and challenged every day. From personal experience, everyone in their team is extremely helpful and focussed on offering the best service to their customers.
http://www.FastSurf.com
Fluidata
Fluidata provide the site with a fast and stable hosting platform for our latest web/database server. Their main focus is on providing high-end business connections catering to those whose business depends upon reliable Internet connectivity. I've personally known the people there a couple of years now, and cannot speak highly enough of them all. They even helped out (extensively) with my dissertation at University!
http://www.fluidata.co.uk

Everyone else!

A countless number of other people have helped in various ways with the site, with everything from a supportive email to supplying large quantities of data. Without the constant suggestions and ideas that crop up on a near daily basis, this site wouldn't have progressed anywhere.