Business in Northern Ireland are being offered up to £1,500 subsidy to install a satellite-delivered broadband. On the surface it looks like a great offer.
Month: January 2002
Unbundling arrives in Edinburgh
Comparison of NTL to Enron
Delta V send data via UHF / VHF
Delta V are using a digital TV via a standard UHF / VHF antenna to receive up to 256k of Internet data with the user makes their request via a dial-up connection. The site is a bit light on technical detail, so it’s not clear how this service would scale to lots of user and still give them 256k download.
TechNet put broadband in the US
A lobby of technology companies in the US, TechNet are ramping up their campaign to make BB ubiquitous.
Oftel push BT to unbundle
It appears that the UK telco regulator, Oftel is actually starting to take some actions to ‘encourage’ the roll-out of BB in the UK by forcing BT to lower some of it’s LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) related charges. I’m not clear if the two reductions mentioned will have any meaningful impact of end-user pricing but I am sure the reduction in connection and rental charges would, sadly Oftel will not take any action on this until a ‘separate analysis of competition in the relevant market’ has been conducted.
AOL-TW increase non-AOL access to content
AOL-TW are to increase their monthly access fee to their content through non-AOL provided broadband connectivity by 50%. I imagine there are two reasons for this, 1) it’s a good lever to get people to change to AOL as their BB providers and 2) shifting BB content over a network that you don’t own end-to-end is expensive.
Rich-media online education starts in Plano, Texas
A trial is just starting in Plano, Texas, USA to provide students access to rich-media educational material after normal school hours via DSL called MyPISD.net (PISD – Plano Independent Schools Districts). The initial trial includes one of each school level, Elementary, Middle and High School. The hitch which is touched upon is the fact the parents of the students need to provide the extra $50 extra dollars a month for access to the system.
Pace announce sub-£100 digital TV adaptor
UK company Pace today announced a sub-£100 digital TV adaptor, that enables and analogue TV to receive digital broadcasts.
Microsoft denied the Xbox is entertainment gateway
Initially Microsoft denied that the Xbox would be an entertainment gateway, fearing that would raise paranoia in potential purchasers. It was clear to everyone that this was of course nonsense. Xbox 2 or HomeStation as it cheekily rumoured to be called will apparently not be disguised as ‘just’ a games machine.