Month: November 2004

Viagra to Use RFID to Highlight Fakes

It has been claimed that 50% of the Viagra offered over the Internet is fake. Given this and the fact that Viagra had worldwide sales of nearly $1.9 billion last year, it pays Pfizer to protect its product.

Pfizer have announced that by the end of next year they will be shipping Viagra bottles with Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags built in to them. The tiny RFID tags will give them the ability to trace the shipments from factory to shop, while giving the purchaser the confidence that the goods are genuine.

The subject of RFID has proved controversial. Many businesses are enthused by the potential of the technology in further automating their supply chains while some groups feel that individuals privacy could be compromised the technology. If RFID tags were fitted to clothing, a shop would be able to ‘read’ which clothes a person was wearing as they walked through the door.

It’s unclear whether purchasers of Viagra will be happy to walk around with a bottle that could be remotely detected.

Pfizer

First 8Mb Broadband for UK Homes from UK Online

UK Online are today launching the UK’s first 8Mb consumer DSL service. Called Broadband 8000, it will cost £39.99 per month and is subject to a £50 setup charge.

The previous fastest consumer service in the UK was 4Mb but the vast majority of ADSL connections run at 512k, making Broadband 8000 sixteen times faster. Upload speeds remain at 400k matching higher speed services.

UK Online, who were established in 1994, aim to offer the service to 230 exchanges spread around the UK during 2005. This will covers 18% of the UK population, or 4.4m homes.

As of today, the 8Mb service is available from four exchanges; Walton-on-Thames, Surrey; Kingswood, East of Bristol; St Albans, Hertfordshire and Dinsdale in the Midlands.

Alternatives to BT’s broadband service are possible due to “Local Loop Unbundling” (LLU), where other companies place their equipment in telephone exchanges. Working with their unbundling partner EasyNet, they are planning to convert 10 exchanges a week, with the other exchanges being chosen on a demand basis. Chris Stenning told us “we encourage people to pre-register at the site”. A smart and logical move on their part and one that BT used in the earlier days of broadband when choosing the exchanges it would convert.

UK Online have wisely recognised that the broadband requirements have risen for many multi-occupancy households. As DSL users realise how much better the broadband experience is, their demand for usage increases. When a household has a number of members using the broadband connection at the same time, the currently standard 512k connection isn’t up to it.

We’re big supporters of any service that increases bandwidth to consumers. The more bandwidth available, the more willing people will be to take their video entertainment from online sources.

The real bandwidth hog is video, but as with all of these things, multi-room TVIP services will demand higher bandwidth than 8Mb per household.

Justin Fielder, CTO of UK Online told us that 8Mb is the fastest service that can offered in the UK with current regulation. Faster services, such as ADSL 2+, would require approval from UK regulator, OFCOM. ADSL 2+ uses higher frequencies, so it needs to be ensured that these would not cause interference within the network. This process is currently being undertaken by OFCOM and when complete, promises speeds of up to 18-24Mb. Fielder tell us that upgrading their customers to that, would only require a software update at the exchange and a new modem which would be shipped to the customer.

UK Online Broadband 8000

Music Downloads from Street Kiosk

Inspired Broadcast Networks (IBN) has announced an electronic music vending Kiosk that will sit at locations around the UK/London. Members of the public will be able to insert a cash payment and once paid for, the electronic music will initially be downloaded using either a USB port, or by inserting an SD memory card into the machine. IBN feel (rightly) that wireless distribution will become dominant and are supporting Bluetooth and WiFi distribution of the content.

The first cash download will take place on Wednesday at IBN’s office in Soho, London. Tracks will be £1. Following this, the kiosks will be rolled out around the UK starting with three mainline London train stations, Charing Cross, London Bridge and Waterloo. We think the choice of these sites is ideal – commuters, bored of their current music selection will be able to charge their portable music players ready for the journey. IBN hope to get to 20,000 sites in the next two years.

All of the music will be supplied by Entertainment UK, the largest supplier of physical music formats in the UK. It’s currently unclear if this partnership will see the kiosk located in the shops that Entertainment UK supplies physical goods to.

The music will initially only be available in protected Windows Media format (WMA). IBN are also working on a system called ‘Linguist’ that they hope will translate between differing makes of DRM, while maintaining the contents protection. They are also ‘in discussions’ with Apple, which is strange. Inspired Broadcast Networks (IBN) is a subsidiary of Leisure Link Group (LLG), is the largest operator of coin-operated entertainment terminals in the UK. The Cloud, a WiFi access company is its sister company.

Back in March IBN signed a deal with Ericsson to provider 5,000 WiFi access points in locations around the UK.

Inspired Broadcast Networks

Utilities Switch On Broadband Over Powerlines

Broadband over Powerline (BPL) is an emerging technology that may shake up the competitive world of broadband Internet and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. It offers high-speed access to your home through the most unlikely path, a common electrical outlet, allowing you to plug your computer into any electrical outlet in your home and instantly have access to high-speed Internet.

Combining the technological principles of radio, wireless networking and modems, the technology can be used to send data over power lines and into homes at speeds equivalent to DSL and cable. In Singapore, Pacific Internet is one of two ISPs trialling the technology in conjunction with Singapore Power. The Singapore trial is currently sustaining connection speeds of 2.2Mbit/s – faster than Telstra ADSL. Elsewhere in the world, power lines are running at 4.5Mbit/s, and ultimately the technology supports speeds of up to 10Mbit/s. It also allows utilities to tap existing infrastructure cheaply, fill market gaps in underserved regions and benefit from plummeting equipment costs.

For instance, the city of Manassas in Virginia has signed a deal with local utility Communication Technologies to extend broadband services across the city’s powerlines to 15,000 residential and commercial locations for less than $30 (£16) a month. Revenue is then shared between the city and the utility, as long as they adhere to powerline radiation-emission restrictions and follow consistent and repeatable measurement guidelines set out by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

It’s not all been going smoothly for the new technology though. The two test plants near Rochester, NY, both pulled the plug on their setups when the cost analysis came in. There was a major interference issue on BPL also, but the final argument was decided due to the money.

New UK VOD Gets All Clear from EU

European regulators have approved a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company, Columbia Pictures (a division of Japanese electronics giant Sony), and the UK’s ON Demand Group to provide a video-on-demand service in Britain and Ireland. The new venture will be called MovieCo and will give UK cable network operators an alternative to procure video content other than BSkyB, which is currently the dominant player on this market.

The MovieCo joint venture will offer films to customers of Britain and Ireland’s two biggest cable companies, Telewest and NTL. According to the EU statement, it ‘will provide an open platform to which movie content providers will have access on a non-discriminatory basis, therefore enabling them to make films available by way of video-on-demand directly to customers.’ The deal is also likely to help improve Hollywood’s leverage with BSkyB, as the satellite TV company renegotiates with individual studios over the rights to films for its stable of movie channels. Sky offers its movie channels to cable customers as well as its own satellite subscribers.

The new service will allow viewers to pick from a wide selection of movies to watch whenever they want. The technology is expected to be a key weapon for cable and telecommunications providers in their battle against satellite firms. Companies including BT Group and France Telecom’s Wanadoo also have video-on-demand platforms in the works. Video Networks’ HomeChoice already offers video-on-demand to areas of London.

More importantly, MovieCo will add legitimacy to the concept of on-demand movie downloads to PCs. The business has been in a state of flux because of piracy on popular peer-to-peer networks (P2P) and concerns over the quality of digital movies. To boot, the sector is also under constant scrutiny of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which is making good on its threat to sue file-swappers. The trade association has been busy in the US issuing subpoenas to ISPs demanding the identities of subscribers using P2P applications to upload and download copyrighted works.

The Walt Disney Company
Columbia Pictures (Sony)
ON Demand Group

Jupiter Find Media Becoming More Digital at Home

mirra personal serverBy 2009, consumers will require at least a 57Mbit/s Internet connection speed – up from today’s 3Mbit/s – to meet the demands of an ever-growing collection of always-on home media devices, according to research carried out by Jupiter Research. For tech-savvy consumers, the bandwidth requirement will likely be even higher, as much as 84Mbit/s.

Fuelled by the uptake of home wireless networks, the report, “A Portrait of the Wireless Home in 2009,” tackles a number of key issues; what the average and tech-savvy digital home will look like in 2009; comparing wireless bandwidth requirement of the average home today with 2009. It also poses questions such as with the implementation of compression standards such as H.264, will consumers need 100Mbit/s or 802.11n at home?

The report comes following the four complete and 30 partial proposals that were submitted to the IEEE for consideration for the 802.11n standard in August 2004, which will increase wireless throughput to 100Mbit/s. The 802.11n standard should be ratified in 2006, although pre-standard products are already out on the market.

The study finds a growing reliance on digital media. Home media servers, such as Mirra’s Personal Server (from $399), are growing in popularity because they allow you to access files stored on their hard disk from any Web browser, allowing you to playback video and audio files to a laptop or Wi-Fi enabled TV in your living room, or access family photos at your desk at work.

With the increasing uptake of both on-demand video and audio playback, it’s looking more likely that consumers will access media files stored on a central server in their backroom from multiple-connected devices – especially as the number of consumer electronics devices using a wireless network in the home will explode over the next five years, as people move away from traditionally separate devices, such as PCs and stereos.

802.11g has a theoretical maximum speed of 54Mbit/s, you only tend to get on average about half of that. Although this is still over twice as fast as 802.11b, the original WiFi, home media networks which transmit TV shows and music as well as Internet connectivity to multiple devices will require far more speed and bandwidth than standard Wi-Fi can provide. Standards like 802.11n and Ultra Wide Band (UWB) move closer in the right direction.

Jupiter Research Mirra’s Personal Server

East Fork: Media Chipset for Home PC’s from Intel

A chip set focused on providing home users with the ability to capture, manipulate and distribute digital audio and video content around a home network wirelessly is running through the rumour mill. It has been long anticipated.

Intel recently dropped the launch of the 4GHz version of their P4 processor. Many commentators had been wondering what people were going to use all of that processing power for after chip speeds have spiralled upwards in the last few years. In discussion that we’ve had with senior Intel people, it has been clear that they don’t really know what to do with all of that power.

Their new approach is to develop ranges of “platforms” – Centrino, the chipset designed for laptops being a good example. It has low-power use and WiFi built in.

Reuters are reporting on project name “East Fork” will focus the power of the chips on providing and distributing and manipulating Audio and Video (AV) content around peoples home. Playing back AV content doesn’t take a huge amount of processing power, but capturing video and real-time encoding it, to distributed around the household does. The problem Intel faces with that is the media companies don’t want their content digitised, but they are addressing this with content protecting schemes.

The Korean DigiTimes has information that the complete setup will be called “DH EF PCs”. Not too catchy, and we assume an internal name only, that stands for Digital Home East Fork PC.

UK Youth Shun TV To Play Games Online

The age of interactive gaming is well upon us. And, if a new survey undertaken on behalf of BT is to believed, traditional forms of entertainment such as the TV and board games are being overlooked in favour of newer, more interactive technology. This is in contrast to those who feel that there’s nothing as exciting as looting from a half-soaked Monopoly banker or finding the missing piece of a jigsaw from the back of the family sofa.

The research shows that rather than relaxing on the sofa in front of the TV watching programmes, over half of all the online console gamers questioned would rather give up the TV than their online games. And it’s not just committed gamers who feel this way – approximately 77 per cent of 11-16 year olds said they would rather play computer games than traditional board games.

The massive uptake of online games is mainly due to the rollout of broadband across most of the country, and the fact that you can play against, and talk to, gamers from all over the world within the same game. Global rivalries are strong online – apparently – with a third of UK gamers (31 per cent) choosing the US as the nation they most like to beat online, followed by the French (18 per cent) and Germans (11 per cent).

An online community atmosphere also attracts and retains gamers. Rather than converse face-to-face in real-life, some 58 per cent like to play online against new people and just over a quarter prefer online gaming as they compete against real people, whilst half enjoy it as it brings people together, according to the survey. Moreover, 17 per cent of online gamers would find a world without online gaming almost impossible to live in. Great in some ways, tragic in others.

The crux of the research comes down to BT attempting to appear as the ones who drive the uptake of online console gaming in the UK with the sole purpose of selling more broadband. Duncan Ingram, managing director broadband and Internet services BT Retail, of BT said: “This research shows that consumers are looking for more interaction when it comes to home entertainment. The advent of broadband brings a whole new social experience to console gaming by allowing gamers to take their consoles online and play against a community of gamers from all over the world.”

BT

Wi-Fi Roaming Agreement Announced by Hotspot Owners

Wi-Fi hotspot owners BT Openzone, Singapore’s StarHub, Malaysia’s maxis, Japan’s NTT Com, T-Mobile, Australia’s Telstra and Telecom Italia have entered into a broad roaming agreement to allow each others customers to access the others’ networks through a single wireless broadband account, according to The Register. Many would assume that the benefit of this would be that customers would not have to take out expensive roaming contracts or worry about single network coverage. Or will they?

The deal follows the development of a roaming platform by the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA), of which the roaming partners are all members. Customers of participating operators will now be able to use their Wi-Fi subscription at home and roam in other participating WBA carrier member countries to experience ‘world-class’ (their words) wireless broadband. More than 11,500 hotspots are already in play across the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Italy, Czech Republic, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and the United States.

“This announcement redefines the way that international travellers will stay connected while travelling internationally,” said Kyong Yu, chairman of the WBA. “For the first time ever, the customers of our participating carriers will be able to roam across broader international wireless broadband networks with one account. These roaming arrangements set the standard for a uniform and consistent approach to international roaming that should help drive widespread adoption of wireless broadband.”

The platform puts in the place the technology needed to administer cross-network log-ins and billing. However, a less than clear point is that while the partner companies have said that roaming will not attract any extra charges until the end of 2004 – come next year, WBA members may charge roaming fees. The deal is also likely to favour only those users who have taken out more expensive access packages.

The pact will also likely spur on the development of roaming client software, which lets users roam between Wi-Fi, WCDMA, and PHS (Personal Handyphone Service) networks, all with the same interface.