Month: December 2003

UK Reaches 3m Broadband Connections

UK regulator Ofcom announced yesterday that there are now over three million broadband connections in the UK as at Nov 2003. These are broadly split between DSL (55%) and cable (44%).

While we always support the promotion growth of broadband, knowing it is an essential ingredient of a digital lifestyles, we feel that Ofcom including connections speeds a low as 128 kbit/s, outside the excepted normal definition of broadband, leads the figures to be a little misleading.

Looked at in positive terms, the number of broadband households has more than doubled in the last year, with one in five of all UK homes with Internet access now having a broadband connection. This equates, in real terms, to around 10% of the UK population.

Take-up rates for ADSL connections continue to exceed cable modem connections by a factor of 3 to 1 which is fantastic news for BT. It is only when you dig into the detail of the figures, you start to understand the twisted nature of broadband in the UK. Excluding Kingston-Upon-Hull, while has a private telcom provider, nearly all of the DSL connection are provided, at some level, by BT, with only a pitiful 7,800 lines, less than 0.5% of DSL lines installed, having been Local Loop Unbundled (LUU), ie not provided by BT (see table below). We don’t define this as a competitive market.

Table: Broadband take-up at end November 2003

Total broadband
 3,021,000
 
DSL
 Total
 1,674,000
 
 BT Wholesale
 1,664,000
 
 Kingston
 10,000
Cable modem
 Total
 (Oftel estimate) 1,331,000
 
 NTL
 931,000
  Telewest
 (Oftel estimate) over 400,000
Fixed wireless access
  
  Over 2,500
Satellite
  
  Over 6,000
LLU
  
 7,800

Source: Ofcom

Oftel’s Internet and Broadband Brief

BT Launch Residential VoIP Service

UK telecom incumbent, BT, have released a Voice over IP (VoIP) service that they have labelled Broadband Voice. Aimed exclusively at residential customers with broadband connections, whether they be ADSL’s supplied or wholesaled by BT or cable connections, and it is designed to take the puff out of the sales of the cable providers triple-play.

The initial offering has been designed to appeal. Until 31 March 2004, customers are given a free telephone adapter, which looks like a Cisco AT-186, free service features and free evening & weekend calls, all for £7.50 (~$13, ~€11) per month, provided that you sign up for a twelve-month contract. We feel the 12-month commitment customer have to give is partially due to paying back the equipment, but is far more likely to be about BT making an early move in VoIP and trying to capture customers before competition starts.

The move to offer VoIP has surprise many observes as well as, it appears, BT themselves. When we contacted the “dedicated” Broadband Voice phone line, we were connected to the normal Broadband support line as the “dedicated line hasn’t been set up yet”. We later learnt that the service was going to be launched a week before, on the 1.Dec.03, but had to be postponed due to it not being ready. When explaining that the Web site wasn’t able to take orders currently, we were told “Problem with the site – it’s chaos here”. Only one person at the call centre had been trained and not exactly thoroughly; 1/2 day yesterday, 2 hrs the day before.

Voice over IP is now commonplace in the corporate sector, but clearly BT aren’t try to assist SME to take advantage of this. Business customers are not able to sign up for the service, but this isn’t exactly clearly signposted, being that it is only mentioned once, as item four in the terms and conditions.

The reality is that BT doesn’t really want this to be popular, as it will take away large amount of income for them; it’s a defensive move.

BT Broadband Voice

Coke To Sell Music Online in the UK

Soft Drinks company, Coca Cola, will be launching a pay-for legal music download service in the UK in January 2004. They are teaming up with OD2, who provide the technology, and will be offering more than a quarter of a million of tracks.

It is thought that this will be a major boost to the profile of downloadable music given their recent controversial deal to sponsor the BBC’s Top Of The Pops TV pop show and the BBC Radio 1’s weekly top 40 countdown show. Given the target of these shows it is strange that the system will only be usable by people over 18, as a credit card is needed to purchase tracks.

A spokesperson for HMV, high street music sellers, was clearly deluded in their comments, “From a retailer’s point of view, we feel confident that people will stick to established retailers that have a lot of experience in the area. They can offer expertise and depth of knowledge and we feel the vast majority of record buyers would want to continue buying from these sources,” but they would say that wouldn’t they.

MyCokeMusic.com

First Reviews of Nintendo IQue Player Arrive

Back in September this year, Nintendo announced they would be creating a home games console that would sell exclusively in Chinese market. Initially to be sold in Shanghai, Guanzhou and Chengdu, this will be the first games console to be sold in China.

As details emerged of the IQue Player (rough translation, God’s Playing Machine), we realised that its form would be a handheld games controller that plugged directly in to the TV, doing away with the box under the TV. Based on N64, which at its original launch in 1996 was one of the most powerful consoles available, Nintendo clearly plan to leverage its large amount of licensed game content to run on it – very clever when you consider it is currently just sitting earning nothing. It also has hardware-emulation of Nintendo’s pre-N64 console, the Super Nintendo, enabling it to play the enormous library of games that were available for it. The games will be converted to Chinese language and, to minimise piracy often perceived as a problem in China, games will be loaded on to the 64Mb Flash-based memory cartridges at local retailers and will be, at least to Western standards, very cheap.

Time and thinking has moved on a long way from the N64 and the IQue Player benefits from a number of innovative features. It will be launched with one full game and four other demonstration versions of titles will be preloaded on to the cartridge, that will last for between one and ten hours of playing before removing themselves. As touched on above, the new software will be distributes electronically to shops located around China and will be loaded on to Flash memory cartridges at the shops. The operating system, dubbed UOS, is automatically updatable when new games are bought and installed, this may well be to ensure they stay ahead of hackers attempts to copy games.

The IQue Player has now been released in China priced at 598 Yuan (~$72, ~€59, ~£41) slightly above the originally expected 498 Yuan. The games sell for a very competitive, at least to Western eyes, 48 Yuan (~$6, ~€5, ~£3.50).

Two site have now published the first European reviews of the IQue Player, one in English and another slightly more technical one in German.

The video games and content worlds will be watching the progress of this platform in China, not just to get a grasp of the level of enthusiasm for gaming in China, but also for the success of the anti-piracy measures and to see if they are prepared to pay for reasonably priced content.

bSQUARE Launch Power Handheld in UK

bSquare have launched their Power Handheld in the UK in a deal with Vodaphone. The unit, which had various code names including “Maui” and “Power Reference Design”, runs Microsoft CE.NET on its large VGA resolution colour screen and a thumb-driven QWERTY keyboards that extends from its side.

Connecting to the mobile networks using GPRS, it enables its target market, business users, to compose and exchange emails and browse the Web – oh and it is a phone as well. Strangely it does not support either WiFi or Bluetooth, so exchanging content with other computers is via USB or Infra Red (IrDA). Applications, content and the operating systems (OS) can be updated over-the-air as well as via the USB port.

Its size (140mm x 87mm x 19.5mm) and weight (290g) has caused some concern, being that it is too big and heavy to carrying in a pocket. It only has four hours talk time as well.

bSQUARE Power Handheld

Microsoft to Charge for FAT Filing

Microsoft have announced that they will be introducing a licensing fee for the use of their patented portions of the File Allocation Table (FAT).

The FAT contains the list the filenames, their size and location of files that are held on computer media – essentially the index of the files are stored and is used to retrieve them. The structure was originally developed under Microsoft’s original Disk Operating System (DOS) and then under in Windows, later to be replaced by NT Filing System (NTFS). It has become the dominant standard and as such enables the simple interchange of files between different digital devices, such as transferring digital photos held on a camera using a removable Smart Media or via USB lead to a PC.

Microsoft propose two licensing models; one for removable media, covering the preformatting of the media and media preloaded with content, which could, for example be USB drive keyrings, memory cartridges, etc; the other for manufacturers of certain consumer electronics (CE) devices, which they define as follows

“portable digital still cameras; portable digital video cameras; portable digital still/video cameras; portable digital audio players; portable digital video players; portable digital audio/video players; multifunction printers; electronic photo frames; electronic musical instruments; and standard televisions”.

Charges are planned at US$0.25 per unit with a cap on total royalties of $250,000 per manufacturer.

They are effectively saying, if your consumers want to easily exchange information with computers that run Windows, you need to pay us some money to enable that. This could be because they now acknowledge that not every consumer electronics devices will run Windows and want to ensure that they gain some income from them.

It will be interesting to see how the CE companies respond. Will they grit their teeth and pay Microsoft, or will they collectively decide to use an open source filing system. It is a potentially risky move by Microsoft, and could have the affect of pushing people away from their platform.

Microsoft terms

HomePlug IC Now Under $10

Intellon Corp. have announced their third generation of chip for use in powerline-enabled devices. Priced at under $10, the lowest current unit price cost, it enable builders of devices to embed Ethernet connectivity using nothing more that the powercord of the device plugged into the wall socket, creating a network around the building.

The HomePlug Alliance is a US-based organisation that promotes the use of power circuits to carry Ethernet signals and their HomePlug 1.0 standard can now carry up to 14Mbps of data theoretically.

The single chip, INT5200, includes a fair bit of functionality; a HomePlug 1.0 physical layer (PHY) and media access control (MAC), three host interfaces including MII, Ethernet 10/100BT MAC, and USB1.1 device, and a complete analogue front-end (AFE) with receive and transmit amplifiers, all in CMOS technology. Backward compatibility has been maintained by using the same pin out as previous versions.

While transferring data using the power cord of devices seems like a panacea, some parties have voiced concerns that such devices cause interference with radio signals, both within and outside the households using them.

Intellon

The HomePlug Alliance

Digital Terrestrial Television Launches in Japan

Digital terrestrial television (DTT) broadcasting was launched in Japan yesterday by Junichiro Koizumi, their Prime Minister.

Launching in three cities; Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, it is their first step towards turning off analogue transmissions by July 2011. It also happens to coincide with the 50th anniversary year of television broadcasting in Japan.

Although digital broadcasts can be seen over fairly large areas in Osaka and Nagoya, viewing in Tokyo is still narrowly confined to its central areas for the NHK general service. Potential viewers are estimated at 12 million households but some estimate that the actual number of viewers at about 300,000 due to reception and delivery problems. With these small numbers, it is currently seen more as an experiment than a commercial rollout.

Japan has had satellite digital broadcast since 2001, drawing 4.7 million households so far.

Japan Times

Mobile Phone Ringtones Reach Realism

News reaches us that Oki Electric Industry have launched a new range of chips for mobile phones that plays 64 polyphonies simultaneously with eight octaves. If you are slightly lost with this, let us translate; a mobile phone equipped with one of these will be able to have a ringtone capable of playing music with up to 64 musical notes sounding at once, from a range of notes far greater than the human voice (as high as five octave is rare).

This is the third generation of Oki’s Swing’nRinger sound generators and doubles the number of notes that can play simultaneously. As with previous generations ships they will be programmable using MIDI files. Samples will be shipping from December this year and volume shipping will start in March 2004

It is interesting that the technology appears to be catching up with the views of the industry. In our discussions with people taking music in to the digital world, they have been muttering about the next stage in ringtones being complete music track singles being used as ringtones. This technology will bring the rendition of the music to a more familiar sound.

Oki Swing’nRinger Press release