BT – Page 6 – Digital-Lifestyles

BT Vision – IPTV Service Named. Registration Opens

BT Vision - IPTV Service Named. Registration Opens You’ll probably remember that we broke the story back in September about the release date of BT’s then unnamed IPTV plus Freeview service. Today we learn that it’s to be called BT Vision – and that it’s release may have slipped slightly, from the ‘late summer 2006’ quoted by Andrew Burke to Autumn.

As we know … all new services like to claim a level of uniqueness, BT have latched on to it being the “world-first, combining access to digital-terrestrial channels through the aerial with broadband-powered video on demand” – translated? It’s got a Freeview tuner built in.

BT Vision - IPTV Service Named. Registration Opens BT’s also confirming that the box that will do all of these things is to be call the BT Hub. Its will use a software platform powered by Microsoft and that the set-top box is to be made by Philips.

Those interested in the service also have a chance to register at the BT Vision site.

BTW – Straw poll around the office. They’d better turn out some better content on BT Vision than that horrible Flash vision that accompanies the site. Argh – not exactly inspiring.

Wales Aims For 100% Broadband Coverage

Wales Aims For 100% Broadband Coverage The Welsh Assembly has announced today that they’ve selected the BT Group to provide the broadband infrastructure for the remaining exchange areas in Wales.

Nothing particularly exciting about that of course, except that the agreement is a major step on the way to Wales becoming one of the few countries in the world to offer 100% broadband coverage.

With much of lovely, lovely Wales being rural, the Assembly’s Regional Innovative Broadband Support Scheme (RIBS) was set up to connect up parts of Wales described as ‘broadband blackspots’.

The new scheme with see around 10,000 households and businesses receiving access to at least first-generation (512kbps to 2mbps) broadband services at prices comparable with urban areas of Wales.

Wales Aims For 100% Broadband Coverage Once completed, virtually every single household in Wales will be able to join in with the broadband revolution and get stuck into video conferencing, Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) and other business and entertainment uses.

Andrew Davies, Minister for Economic Development and Transport and eMinister for the Welsh Assembly Government swivelled into spin mode: “Currently, around 99% of the Welsh population can access broadband technology – a remarkable achievement in its own right. However, the Assembly Government is committed to ensuring that virtually every single individual and business in Wales has the opportunity to benefit from the advantages offered by this technology.”

Broadband uptake in Wales has almost doubled over the past 12 months, underlining the country’s economic transformation from industrial to a dynamic, knowledge-driven economy.

Wales Aims For 100% Broadband Coverage Compared to some other European countries, Wales’ achievement is significant; in Ireland, for example, only about 18.0% of the population have broadband connections.

The Welsh Assembly has been proactive in ensuring that the country achieves its 100% coverage target, as Ann Beynon, Director BT Wales, explains, ” BT, like the Welsh Assembly Government, is contributing to the cost of enabling these final exchanges and without the Assembly’s assistance, the upgrading would not have been commercially viable.!

Work to equip the remaining BT exchange areas with broadband is scheduled to start immediately.

BT Wales
Broadband Wales Observatory

BT Beefs Up Broadband With Boosted Speeds

BT Beefs Up Broadband With Boosted Speeds BT has announced that some of its users should be able to obtain broadband speeds of ‘up to’ 8 Mbps by the end of March.

Following successful trials, Britain’s largest telecom company confirmed that the BT ADSL Max and BT ADSL Max Premium broadband services will start rolling out across the country from March 31st.

It’s going to be a big job for the BT boys and girls, with the new services requiring the upgrading of more than 5300 exchanges, which together serve more than 99.6 per cent of UK homes and businesses.

BT Beefs Up Broadband With Boosted Speeds All good news you’d think, but the new connectivity comes with a bag full of caveats related to physical factors, with only those lucky enough to live or work close to their local telephone exchange able to scoop up the maximum 8Mbit/s speed.

BT explained that an estimated 78 per cent of BT phone lines should support broadband at line rates of 4Mbit/s and above, with 42 per cent offering 6Mbit/s and above.

BT Beefs Up Broadband With Boosted Speeds Paul Reynolds, BT’s Wholesale chief executive, was keen to big up his company’s commitment to broadband availability in the UK “Thanks to BT’s continued investment in the broadband network, the UK now boasts the highest level of broadband availability in the G8. We’re now building on those efforts in becoming the first operator in the UK to commit to a national service which is capable of broadband speeds of up to 8Mbit/s.

Although BT will be making the faster broadband speeds available to service providers for new orders from the end of the month, existing customers may have to wait “several months” until their lines are upgraded. In other words – loyal customers can go to the back of the queue.

BT’s line checker at bt.com/broadband is also being updated to show the expected speeds available for individual lines.

Live Sports TV Coverage Threatened By BT Media And Broadcast Sale

BT's part sale of Media and Broadcast threatens to turn back the clock The story we’ve been reporting, on BT’s off loading of its unprofitable operations within the (M&B) unit is hotting up. Barclays PE (that’s Private Equity to you and me) is in a period of negotiation with M&B, to complete the deal where they take ownership of Occasional Use; generally outside events that includes Wimbledon tennis coverage and the uplinks of many TV and radio channels to the Sky digital platforms.

Barclay’s are looking to guarantee no compulsory redundancies, for three years, for the 100 plus staff that come across with the deal, and are planning to invest heavily in the future technologies like High Definition television, that they expect to drive broadcasting industry growth in the future.

The problem is that BT staffers are unhappy at being bundled in with the sale and have worries that long term they could see a reduction in the conditions they enjoy. One of their unions, the CWU, has now after balloting, threatened strike action, hoping to change BT’s management’s attitude to those described as ‘in scope’ by the potential deal.

The strike would hit contracted live events carried by both ITV and Sky, the coverage likely to be blacked out would include Grand Prix racing and Soccer games that are scheduled between 8th and 12th of March.

BT's part sale of Media and Broadcast threatens to turn back the clock Now to us here at Digital Lifestyles, this threatened action seems to have a bit of a King Canute/70’s vibe about it. The truth of the matter, is that the competitive landscape has changed in telecommunications and broadcasting. BT is answerable to their city shareholders, and a move to tackle some of the entrenched attitudes within the company’s workforce might be looked on favourably by the number crunchers around the London stock exchange.

KiT, UK IPTV Pioneer To Close

It is with great sadness that we hear that UK IPTV innovator KiT (Kingston interactive TV) is to close its doors on 3rd April. We’ve always been huge fans of their work.

KiT was delivering IPTV, before most people who are now getting excited about the potential of delivering content over a network cable, even understood what IP stood for. How long back? 1999.

Kingston Telecom (KT), who own KiT has always been a unique proposition in the UK which has always been dominated (some would say crushed), by BT. KT was the only independent telecoms company in the UK, originally owned by the local council, Kingston Upon Hull, until it was floated in 1999.

KiT, UK IPTV To Close It’s always struggled to get sufficient subscribers to support the service. Hull is an area with much financial deprivation with the average family income around £14,000/year. It’s understood that the high point of subscriptions, 10,000 at the start of the service, has lead to the current low point of 4,000. The level of financial loses and the need for KiT to refresh its now 7 year old IPTV kit is understood to have lead to the decision. The parent company, Kingston Communications (KC), feel that they can no longer justify supporting the service

Much important work has been done at KiT with many benefits from the results.

One exceptionally inspirational example was the work they did helping to turn around a failing school, Kingswood School, by getting parents and therefore their children more involved with the education provided, through technology. We covered the story back in June 2004.

KiT, UK IPTV To Close Unknown to many, Blockbuster Video have been running a VoD trial on KiT for a couple of years. Their first in the world.

The BBC also benefited, after putting what we understand to be millions of pounds, into understanding how ultra local content works on IPTV over the KiT service.

About six months ago a very senior KiT person got in touch with us to say that they were up for sale.

One of the hopes had been that they would take their extensive IPTV experience, and roll it out over the UK.

KiT, UK IPTV To Close There has been some wondering around the Digital-Lifestyles office if the delay in closing KiT has been a considered position by the KC. By waiting until now to close KiT, the rest of the world now realise that they all need to be in IPTV, and the number of potential purchasers will have increased.

Always one to identify a good buy, some are saying that Sky is interested in buying the remains of KiT. We understand from source inside KiT that this is unlikely, but in our view if they were to take on key members of staff, the purchaser would be getting their hands on very valuable experience. Skills like this would steer purchasers around many of the pot holes that IPTV can provide, potentially saving them millions of pounds.

We all hope that KiT, or at least its employees, have every success in the future.

BT Media And Broadcast Division Set For Part Sale

We understand from good sources that BT is set to announce the name of the buyer for a major slice of its Media and Broadcast operations.

As we revealed in January, BT’s Media and Broadcast (BT M & B) is looking to jettison its unprofitable OU operations. It has let interested parties know that a cash buyer would be welcome for its fleet of Transportable Satellite link vehicles.

We now hear that the sale is going to cover more than just the Occasional Use business.

BT, which since Post Office days has been working with the broadcasting industry, has been persuaded to include its profitable multiplexing business in the sale. This uplinks (ground to satellite) many of the Sky digital TV services and, we understand, it’s possible that part of the ITV network, that it is also responsible for, would also be included.

BT set to announce part sale of its Media and Broadcast division In the frame for the buyout, which is likely to involve the transfer of over 100 employees, is the Australian-backed Arqiva and a major UK bank.

The sale will ensure that existing contracts are honoured. Shedding it is symptomatic of the burden a heavily-unionised BT carries in making units perform profitably and it strikes at M & B’s ambitions to be a powerhouse in the evolving IPTV world.

Insiders have doubts that media and broadcast will continue an operating unit for more than 12 months.

As soon as we have the details on the decision it’ll be here on Digital Lifestyles.

Tesco VoIP: Further Pressure on BT

BT’s dominance of the UK home telephone is coming under fresh pressure as the phone call market becomes the most liberal in Europe. Previously, their pricing levels have had to be agreed in advance with the UK regulator Ofcom, but with it understood that this is going to be lifted soon, price cuts are expected.

In a sign that the gloves are well and truly off, Tesco has unleashed a price-busting Voice over IP (VoIP) package designed to lure customers from the incumbent operator.

It’s further proof (if any were needed) that VoIP continues to shake things up in the voice phone market.

The Tesco package will be marketed at just under £20 and will include a ‘normal’ phone handset that plugs in to a broadband-enabled PC’s USB port, and the software need to drive it. Calls will be made at a fraction of the current cost.

Many other companies continue to pressure BT. Talk-Talk, the landline phone service by The Carphone Warehouse, has already consolidated two of the traditional landline competitors and it’s likely that Sky would also welcome call revenue via its recent Easynet acquisition.

Pressure is also coming from outside the UK. US giant AOL has BT in its sights with a programme to exploit the Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) agreement BT made with Ofcom, which permits AOL and others to house high tech Voice over IP equipment at exchanges throughout the country.

Tesco VoIP: Further Pressure on BT Technical-savvy Skype callers have for a long time taken advantage of VoIP calling to obtain free or cheap calls.

The danger for BT is that the trickle of the public away from its traditional services over recent years could become a torrent, as more content, including broadband TV starts to be delivered by IP, BT could lose their in-built advantage as the default delivery gateway to UK homes.

Is all of this price cutting good news for British consumers? Well, certainly lower call prices will benefit the majority of UK call makers, but there is a question mark in the long run. It could bring mixed blessings for the UK’s telecoms infrastructure as BT tries to cut costs and investment to ensure that its institutional shareholders remain happy as they operate on slimmer margins.

BT Media and Broadcast Sale Sought: Exclusive

BT Looks To Sell OU Operations Digital-Lifestyles has been informed, and can exclusively reveal, that BT is looking to shed its OU operations from its Media and Broadcast (BT M&B) division.

For those of you not in the know (like the vast majority of those not directly involved in the day-to-day of the business), OU is Occasional Use – the temporary services that provide worldwide video for events like Live 8.

BT has a long history of servicing the broadcast industry with the provision of telecom lines and links dating back to pre-Privatisation Post Office days. They provide the infrastructure behind ITV’s regional switching network and its customers include such TV giants as CNN and QVC.

Despite BT as a whole being determined to move into new revenue opportunities like TV, there’s new breed of technology solutions for linking signals which are outside BT’s control. This bothersome issue is further squeezing their previously healthy profits, and the current cost base for BT’s OU services makes it difficult to justify continued operations, indeed we’ve been told that the OU is currently unprofitable. It’s hoped that a buyer will be able to make the operations pay, by reducing costs and realising synergies.

In the last decade, the former state monopoly phone companies (and many argue this hasn’t changed a great deal) have divested themselves of the majority of their interests in global satellite operators, as we saw when the global teleco industry packaged and sold Intelsat. There’s no reason to not see a continuation of that trend.

BT Looks To Sell OU Operations Further deals for incumbent European telecoms operators are on the cards as they retreat into their core businesses. See France Telecom, who recently off-loaded one of its Paris Earth Stations to the satellite operator Eutelsat.

Private discussion are ongoing with a number of suitors and a decision on a buyer is expected in February. Those linked with the purchase include satellite operators Intelsat and SES.

It’s unlikely to be simple to disengage the Occasional Use element from the Media and Broadcast division and potential suitors may try and cherry pick the more profitable elements in a deal.

BT Abandons Internet Kiosk Empire

BT Abandons Internet Kiosk Empire BT has cut short its ambitious plans to transform phone boxes into interactive Internet gateways.

BT had originally planned a large national roll-out of public multimedia kiosks, turning call boxes into mini-offices where punters could make calls, fire off emails, send SMS text messages and surf the web.

The first super-charged phone boxes appeared on the streets four years ago, with BT announcing plans to install a total of 28,000 Internet booths in high traffic areas like train stations, shopping malls and city centres.

Sadly, the cunning plan stalled after just 1,300 of the Marconi-built booths had been installed, with BT now abandoning plans to create any more.

BT Abandons Internet Kiosk Empire In a public statement BT said, “There are no immediate plans to reduce the base of public multimedia kiosks other than moving to locations with better revenue earning potential and agreeing moves with our managed site owners.”

Despite this, some industry experts are suggesting that some of the existing booths may also be removed and downgraded back to humble ‘vanilla’ phone boxes in the near future.

BT Abandons Internet Kiosk Empire With the continuing exponential growth in Internet-enabled mobile phones and Wi-Fi, we wouldn’t be surprised if we see some of these all-singing phone terminals disappearing sooner rather than later.

ITV: Takeover Rumors, Poss BT

Speculators with a wad of cash might like to consider convert said cash into an ITV plc share holding in the next few days some feel.

Rumors in the city on Friday that BT was seriously considering making a bid for the UK’s top-rated commercial broadcaster have already driven the ITV share-price up. While this particular risk adverse suitor might not make the deal, ITV is looking an increasingly attractive proposition to a variety of companies.

Even without a takeover, ITV has been tipped by financial commentators to outperform the sector having come out the other side of a restructuring process as a more focused media company.

BT, despite having previously stated that it has no desire to enter the content market, needs to consider the competition from both BSkyB and a revitalised NTL. This could force BT’s into making an early move before other predatory companies come out of the shadows but will need to balance this against the cost of such an acquisition.

Google has already done a deal with ITN, part owned by ITV (and its contracted news provider), to access the company’s extensive archives and is busy beefing up an alliance to take on Microsoft and Yahoo.

Away from the ‘Search goliaths’, mobile companies also see an opportunity in DVB-H TV services. This would provide revenues but the mobile operators would be in a position where they’d need to split revenues with broadcasters or content owners. Perhaps they would like to get a hold of a strong broadcaster to pay for those expensive licenses?

Unlike Sky, which is principally a broadcast platform owner and call centre operator, ITV actually has what companies with desires to be fully-grown media giants badly need; content and a fifty year plus heritage of making TV programmes.

Until a financially-pressed Chancellor of the Exchequer looks at the anomaly that is the Channel 4 company (effectively a state owned UK TV company), there’s not a lot else available in Europe that sustains close scrutiny. The UK’s Channel 5 is embedded with RTL and it is unlikely that the BBC will be considered for privatisation until after the next Royal Charter is granted.

In the current frenzy of consolidation, ITV a relative minnow in global terms is sure-fire shark bait to Telcos, mobile operators and Internet giants.