Every now and then, I like to travel back in time to dispense wisdom from the future. This week, I chose 1999 and ended up talking to a bunch of Napster users.

"This is just a blip," I told them. "One day, you'll be able to get all the music you want without worrying about being sued."

"Ooh," said the music fans.

"It'll be instant, too. Click a song, it'll play immediately, in CD quality."

"Wow," came the reply.

"Not only that, but it'll work on anything. Your TV. Your PC. Even your phone."

"Blimey," they said.

"All you need to do is wait twelve years."

I'm not allowed to print their reply to that one.

I wasn't kidding, though. We finally have a UK ISP offering a celestial jukebox, a service where you can play what you want, when you want, without paying per track. It's just a shame that it's taken more than a decade to turn up - and that it's not the service Virgin Media really wants to give you.

Music non stop

Does anyone want a music service from their ISP? Playlouder MSP spent 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007 trying and failing to launch a music-streaming ISP, while Sky dumped its Sky Songs subscription service late last year because of insufficient demand. Other ISPs have fiddled with music services too, without much success.

There are several differences this time. First, the Virgin Media/Spotify deal has the blessing of the major labels (although that's taken Virgin Media two years to get), which has been the stumbling block for many music services - including previous attempts by Virgin Media. More of that in a moment.

Secondly, Spotify has a free version for people who don't want to pay extra for music, something Sky Songs didn't offer. And thirdly, Virgin is reportedly considering offering paid-for Spotify services as part of a bundle rather than as stand-alone services. "Buy broadband, get Spotify" could be an attractive offer.

So should we be grateful to the big record labels for letting Virgin Media team up with Spotify? After all, they have the power to veto Spotify's content deals, and they could easily have scuppered this one.

The answer is yes and no. Yes, because Spotify's not a bad service, and deals with the other big ISPs can't be far away - and no, because it seems that the labels have scuppered what sounds like an even better offering.

According to The Telegraph, Virgin Media developed its own music service, a service that makes Spotify look rather limited: not only would you get unlimited streaming, but you'd get unlimited downloads too. A "senior music figure" apparently told The Telegraph: "Virgin Media has built its own service and it's really good... Warner and EMI are driving a tough deal, but Sony US management has really stuck its heels in and is not budging. The company do not like the idea of offering unlimited amounts of downloads for a monthly subscription fee."

So much for progress.

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Ofcom has launched an interactive map of Britain showing just how fast – or slow – each area's broadband connections are.

As well as connection speeds, the map options allow you to view overall performance, average broadband take up, superfast broadband availability and average modem sync speeds.

Unsurprisingly, London is one of the few areas rated 1 for fastest, while most of Wales, the South West of England and huge areas of Scotland languishing in the 4s and 5s, restating the need for investment in rural areas.

Rural juror

Northern Ireland has almost complete availability of super-fast broadband thanks to BT's intense fibre-optic roll-out, due for completion in 2012, but the rest of the country is quite far behind, with very few other areas offering 90 per cent availability or more.

Clicking on the area you're interested in brings up a run down of the state of its broadband availability, including the average sync speed for that realm.

The map is based on accurate information procured by Ofcom from ISPs and other communications providers, with another, more detailed map slated for later in the year.

It's a handy map which not only shows you how your own personal area is doing, but also serves to remind us how many areas of the country are falling behind in the super-speed broadband race.