BT

BT Project Nevis Selects Microsoft IPTV For UK TV Over Broadband
In a cornucopia of convergence, BT has announced their intention to use the Microsoft TV Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) Edition software platform to deliver TV over broadband in the UK. Internally within BT, the project is referred to as Project Nevis.
The Microsoft TV IPTV Edition software platform lets broadband network operators whizz high-quality video content and services down the wire to their customers using existing and next-gen broadband networks.
The platform delivers cost-effective and security-enhanced delivery of a whole gamut of pay-TV service offerings, including standard- and high-definition channels, on-demand programming, digital video recording, and interactive program guides.
There are extra consumer-pleasing gizmos in the package too, with features like instant channel-changing and picture-in-picture functionality using multiple video streams.
Unlike most consumer pay-TV delivery systems, the Microsoft TV platform allows network operators to integrate the delivery of pay-TV services with other networked broadband services in the home such as PCs, telephones, game consoles, mobile devices and other gadgets.
Gavin Patterson, Group Managing Director of BT Retail slipped on his buzzword moccasins and danced a soft shoe shuffle to his Big Vision:
“BT and Microsoft share a common vision for converged entertainment in the home. TV over broadband services will play an important role in BT’s triple-play offering for consumers. Our approach of over-the-air broadcast and broadband-delivered video-on-demand, interactivity and enhanced support is the perfect solution and complements existing TV propositions already in the UK market. The combination of Microsoft’s best-in-class technology with BT’s 21st-century network will result in an incredibly exciting set of next-generation entertainment and communication services available to consumers across the UK.”
As the sound of mutual backslapping threatened to reach ASBO-generating levels, Moshe Lichtman, corporate VP of the Microsoft TV division gushed:
“BT is a great example of one of the world’s leading network operators choosing Microsoft TV as the software platform for its digital TV and converged entertainment services.”
“We are very pleased to be working with such a well-respected and innovative operator as BT. Microsoft TV IPTV Edition will enable a full suite of integrated entertainment and communication services that will set the bar for what consumers will expect,” he added.
BT plan to start trials of the TV over broadband service in early 2006, with a commercial service expected to start in the summer of 2006.
Microsoft TV
BT
28 June, 2005
BT Fusion Integrates Landline And Mobile Calls
BT has unveiled a smarty-pants phone designed to integrate landline and mobile phone technologies.
Called BT Fusion, the handset promises callers the “best of both worlds” and works like a regular mobile phone away from home, but when the rambling caller comes home, the clever stuff whirrs into action.
As soon as the user’s home broadband hub is detected, the call is transferred to a VoIP connection through the phone’s own Bluetooth software.
BT is hoping that the service (dubbed “Project Bluephone” during development) will tickle the fancy of consumers looking for the functionality of a cell phone with cheaper fixed-line prices.
“We know that many of our customers enjoy the convenience of their mobile phones when they’re out and about, but switch to using a landline phone when they arrive back home to save money or because they have little or no mobile coverage”, observed Ian Livingstone, chief executive of BT Retail.
BT Fusion is part of the company’s strategy to lure back customers wooed by mobile telephonic temptresses touting cheap calls.
The BT Fusion service – using adapted Motorola V560 GSM phones – will initially be trialled by 400 customers, with a more widespread consumer launch in September, followed up by a corporate package rollout in 2006.
BT was tight-lipped about how many customers it expected to sign up to the service, but was clearly eyeing up the 30 percent of their customers who make mobile phone calls from their homes.
“The future will be convergence”, insisted Livingstone. “This is going to be a market that grows fantastically over time even though it might take a while to get going. We still expect many millions of converged handsets by the end of the decade.”
BT’s monthly packages will come in two flavours, offering 100 cross-network minutes for £9.99 (US$18.07~ €15) or 200 minutes for £14.99 (US$27.12~ €22.5) for 200 minutes.
Calls to landlines originating in the home will be ratcheted up at BT’s regular rate of 5.5 p (10 cents, €0.08) for up to an hour.
Subscribers wanting to join the BT Fusion gang will need both a BT landline and access to BT broadband, with a special access point, called the BT Hub, being installed in the home.
Although currently using Bluetooth, BT is planning an upgrade to Wi-Fi technology and has already installed the necessary wireless equipment in the hubs.
Although Ian Livingstone, chief executive at BT Retail, has commented that the service could be used on any broadband service provider “if we decide to make it available”, subscribers will have to use BT’s own broadband service and Vodafone for now.
BT Fusion
Motorola’s RAZR Coming Soon to BT Fusion Service
15 June, 2005
TalkTalk Attacks BT Landline Market
There’s a big battle going on for your landline, with the Carphone Warehouse limbering up to get in some telling punches into BT’s sector dominance.
TalkTalk UK – Carphone’s fixed line subsidiary – is looking to snaffle ten per cent of the UK’s fixed line market within the next three years, after recording what they describe as an “outstanding year”.
The company has soared into profit in only its second year of operation, despite hefty investment and marketing costs, with more than 920,000 fixed line users generating revenues of £123.6m (~US$225m~€183m).
Heady on success, sharp suited TalkTalk execs have sent the flipcharts flapping and come up with an ambitious target of signing up two million residential consumers by March 2008 – that’s one in ten of the UK’s fixed line market.
TalkTalk also plans to simplify the process for customers paying their call charges and line rental on a single bill – or “terminating the billing relationship with BT” as they like to call it.
Chief exec Charles Dunstone was ready with a quote: “We are now well on the way to developing a broad-based telecoms group, providing mobile and fixed line services to individuals and businesses across ten countries.”
“We have now proved that TalkTalk has all the ingredients to become the major alternative force in UK residential communications, and further regulatory change over the next year should allow us to move to the next level in both scale and range of service.”
The parent company, Carphone Warehouse, have also released bumper figures, reporting a 33.8% rise in pre-tax profits to £102.1 million (~US$185m ~€151m) in the 12 months to the end of March, against £76.3 million (~US$138m ~€113m) for the same period a year ago.
Turnover hopped, skipped and jumped up 27% per cent to £2.35 billion, operating profit soared up 45% to £107 million (~US$195m ~€158m), with Carphone Warehouse signing up 6.5 million new customers to mobile and fixed-line telephone services during the period (21.6 per cent higher than new connections for the previous year).
Crucially, revenues from telecoms services were up 45% to £804 million (~US$1,462m ~€1,190m), with operating profit flying up 50% to £22.5 million (~US$41m ~€33m).
“Our year-to-date connections growth of 20 per cent is particularly encouraging, especially in the context of a weaker consumer environment in the UK,” purred Charles Dunstone. “We remain confident of the outlook,” he added, before announcing that he was selling his first tranche of 6 million shares, or 2 percent, in the company.
Talk Talk UK
Carphone Warehouse
7 June, 2005
Broadband Beats Dial-Up In The UK
Research from BT shows that the number of users connecting to the Internet via broadband has overtaken dial-up subscriptions for the first time, with 7.4 million broadband customers (including cable) now online.
The figures, released by the BT Group, reveal that it has taken just over three years for broadband connections to overtake dial-up, with millions bidding farewell to “KKKKK-ER-ZRRRR-WEEIR!” modem dial up sounds for the silent, swift appeal of always-on broadband.
The speed of uptake has been accelerated by the intense competition from a host of high-speed Internet service providers, all offering customer-tempting speedier connections and services at ever-falling prices.
Initially, broadband availability was geographically limited, but according to Ben Verwaayen, the chief executive of BT, connections are now available to 99.6 per cent of the UK population, “equivalent to the proportion with running water.”
Businesses have been quick to take advantage of broadband’s ability to handle significantly more data than dial-up, with always-on connectivity delivering commercial advantages in the global markets.
High speed connections are also good news to those selling goods and services online, with an explosive growth in the consumer market for buying media online, such as films, music and television.
Mr Verwaayen said: “I know people’s memories are short but I don’t think that anybody three years ago had even the faintest hope this would happen. I remember when I came into BT [April 2002] it was not in anyone’s imagination.”
Cash is still rolling into broadband investment, with Cable & Wireless announcing last week that it would be shelling out another £70m (~US$127m ~€m)to expand its Bulldog broadband brand.
Bulldog is currently handling 14,000 customer orders a month after launching last year at a cost of £41m (~US$74m, ~€103m).
BT remains the Big Cheese of the broadband world in the UK, boasting 1.7 million broadband subscribers of its own, with its network supplying a further 3.7 million broadband connections for other Internet service providers.
Two million cable customers now enjoy broadband connectivity through NTL and Telewest.
Mr Verwaayen wrapped things up: “We have to take the internet out of the domain of the geek and into the normal world. That’s the journey we are on. After that you can increase the multiplier effect of broadband in the economy. “It’s great to have overtaken dial-up, that’s another step, but it’s still in its early days.”
BT Group
Bulldog Broadband
31 May, 2005
AOL Talk Phone Service Challenges BT UK Landlines
AOL today trumpeted its intention to muscle into the UK phone business with the launch of a home service offering unlimited calls for an introductory flat rate of £7.99 (~US$14, ~€11) per month.
AOL UK – which has more than 2.3 million subscribers, including more than one million on AOL Broadband – will be the launching the AOL Talk service for its AOL Internet subscribers tomorrow, with the standalone product going on sale later this year.
The service will include unlimited UK local and national calls of any duration, day or night.
By tempting its users to dump BT and take advantage of their cheaper phone bills, AOL UK is following the lead taken by Tele2, TalkTalk, Tesco, and a host of other providers.
The introductory flat rate, valid until 30 June 2005, applies for the first 12 months of an AOL Talk subscription, after which customers will shell out for the standard subscription fee of £9.99 (~US$5.5, ~€8) per month.
Johnny-come-lately subscribers signing up after 30 June 2005 will pay this standard monthly subscription fee.
AOL claimed that the package also includes “competitive” mobile and international rates, offering an example tariff of 5p/min weekend calls to Vodafone.
Chief executive Karen Thomson said she wanted to give home phone users “competitive, easy-to-use services, with costs that are genuinely transparent and highly competitive”, adding that the flat rate package offers no hidden charges or limits on the time customers can spend calling UK landlines.
AOL Talk is based on Carrier Pre-Select, allowing customers with a BT landline to switch home phone providers without changing their phone number or line.
BT line rental fees will continue to apply to users of AOL Talk, but the ISP may offer wholesale line rental (WLR) at a later date giving consumers the option of incorporating line rental and call charges on the same bill.
AOL UK
AOL And Wanadoo VoIP Services Overview
16 May, 2005
High Altitude Platform (HAP): Broadband For All?
Broadband is taking off everywhere, speeds are increasing and everybody’s happy. Well almost. Broadband isn’t available to all, especially those in more rural areas.
Unfortunately cable companies don’t have the financial resources to lay fibre everywhere (especially in today’s economic climate) and even BT, who are radically changing the old telephone network so that every exchange in the UK is wired up for Internet, still won’t be able to reach rural customers. It isn’t because they don’t want to, but (in BT’s case) the DSL (digital subscriber line) technology just doesn’t work at long distances.
This will leave large percentages of the population without broadband and currently their only option will be expensive satellite systems.
There’s a chance that some kind of fixed wireless access (FWA) solution will become available, but currently the technology is expensive and again requires a massive investment in radio masts and connecting them all together. Unfortunately FWA is likely to be used for backhaul in more urban areas where the population density justifies the upfront investment.
HAPpy HAPpy, Joy Joy
Luckily it looks like there is an answer, and it’s call HAP (High Altitude Platform). There have already been trials of HAP using tethered balloons, and these have been reasonably successful, but there are problems. They are relatively low altitude, so may interfere with other air traffic. However being tethered means they can use the tether cable to connect to the infrastructure on the ground (i.e. say the Internet), but it limits them to being tethered in suitably connected areas.
Utilising a real HAP solution means sending what could be called airships up 20Km or so, these would freely roam the sky. Being so high they wouldn’t interfere with commercial air traffic – of course would still need to get approval from the international aviation authorities, especially for launching them and what happens when something goes wrong or they falls back to earth.
Other approaches to HAP involve lightweight aircraft, such as the European-funded Capanina project.
Both balloon and fixed-wing platforms would use radio systems (similar to satellite) to transmit to end-users, who would use a steer able dish that tracks the HAP. Current thoughts are that the HAPs will use both radio and optical transmissions between HAPs (since optical interference is very low at 20Km altitude).
The HAP end-user connection may use existing WiFi-type solutions to actually connect people, so a small village may have a central HAP system which then people connect to using traditional systems.
Where HAP can offer significant benefits, is to moving objects such as trains. They would use a sophisticated electronically steer able aerial to track the HAPs and would allow continuous reception of signals – even between HAPs.
Since the bandwidth between a ground receiver and the HAP would be about 120Mb/s, rural (and moving) users might actually get a better service than traditional broadband users.
Unfortunately it’s going to take a while for this to be a commercial reality, but at least people are thinking about it, trials are commencing now and it’s got European funding.
Capanina
10 May, 2005
BT Rich Media And Sportfive To Stream WorldCup Qualifiers
BT Rich Media has cuddled up to Sportfive, a French sports marketing group, and announced a partnership to make 2006 Football World Cup qualifying and friendly games available to fans streamed over broadband on the Internet.
Under the terms of the agreement, Sportfive – owners of the largest portfolio of European qualifying games – will use the BT Rich Media platform for publishing and distributing the video content.
Football bonkers viewers will be able to choose between 250Kbps or 500Kbps quality streams for approximately £7 (~US$13 ~€10), or alternatively download the entire match to keep forever for around £5 (~US$9.50 ~€7). As a long suffering Wales fan, I have to admit that there’s several games which I never wish to see again!
Not every match will be available online though, with only untelevised games being available to stream/download.
The games will be served up on http://www.qualifiers2006.com and promoted to over 10 million users via a range of affiliate sites such as soccernet.com,.teamtalk.com, sportinglife.com and rivals.net .
BT Rich Media will also be using the same technology to stream the forthcoming Scottish BT Cup Final at ScottishRugby.org.
BT Rich Media
Sportfive
28 April, 2005
AbbiTalk: UK VoIP Operator Claims Challenge To BT
AbbiTalk, a West Sussex-based provider of Voice Over IP (VoIP) telephony services, is talking tough about its cut-rate broadband call packages, that offer customers extra telephone lines with discount local and UK call charges and no line rental.
Boldly claiming to be “giving BT a run for its money”, AbbiTalk claim that its customers will “generally” save £90 over the cost of using BT phone lines in year one and a further £110 in subsequent years (dependent on the package concerned).
Paul Perrin, director of AbbiTalk is – perhaps – getting a little carried away here: “Within 18 months, we believe most telephone calls in the UK will be free and the only rental payment will be for a broadband connection. Many international calls will also be free. BT is running scared, and we’re doing the chasing!”
Customers using AbbiTalk’s broadband service pay the installation charge for their chosen VoIP deal to gain access to competitive call rates: free calls to users of AbbiTalk and other UK and international SIP services, 1.2/min to UK BT phones and less than 2p/min for calls to the USA, Australia and China.
Prices start at £149 for “AbbiTalkBasicOne”, which provides one extra phone line, a unique number with Pre Pay phone account, an adaptor and a DECT digital cordless phone with digital answering machine.
Other packages include “AbbiTalkTwo”, which provides two phone lines with a single, unique number shared across both, a router/hub, digital cordless phone with digital answering machine and an additional digital phone and “AbbiTalkTwoPlus” which offers two extra phone lines, two separate numbers and two DECT digital phones with digital answer machines.
The top package, forgettably entitled “AbbiTalkTwoWF”, adds WiFi networking of the customer’s computer.
New customers can use their existing broadband connection to adopt the service, or plump for AbbiTalk’s own broadband.
No line rental is charged and there’s no need to use a computer to make the calls as these are accomplished through the standard cordless handsets.
AbbiTek’s MD, Keith Gardner, got all historical in his statement: “VoIP is now widely recognised as the next ‘disruptive technology’. Historians claim that others were Bell’s original telephone, Marconi’s wireless, the internal combustion engine, etc., so big changes are on the way.”
“We have subscribed to this view for some time, hence our core business, Abbitek, focuses on VoIP services for enterprises. Through AbbiTalk, our customers can access the latest VoIP products. When configured, these enable us to deliver all the benefits of VoIP to domestic, small business and home workers: our simple and affordable packages have something for everyone. Initial reactions have been positive.”
AbbiTalk
27 April, 2005
BT Loves Free Wi-Fi Hotspots
Unlike several telecoms companies in the US who are hell bent on blocking free Wi-Fi hotspots, BT has stated that it has “no problems” with the concept.
Although free wireless hotspots are becoming increasingly common worldwide, telcos in Philadelphia and Texas are camping in their lawyer’s offices in an attempt to get hotspots shut down, arguing that it is not in the government’s remit to compete with commercial services.
To a chorus of boos in our office, Andrew “meany” Allison, head of Intel’s mobility group in the UK, spat out; “Governments should do what governments are meant to do: govern. They don’t run, support and maintain networks. That’s for network operators.”
Clearly, Islington Council in London doesn’t agree. They launched a mile-long free Wi-Fi network, dubbed the ‘Technology Mile’, earlier this week.
The network covers the length of Upper Street – one of the busiest streets in Islington – with the Council donating PCs to some local businesses as part of its push to boost economic activity in the area and to encourage local residents onto the Internet.
Chris Clark, BT’s chief executive for wireless broadband approves, telling vnunet.com that he has no problems with free wireless hotspots, and that the more people using the technology the better.
“Free access doesn’t touch us,” he said. “It’s not a market we’re going after. We’re after the business market and in a lot of cases business laptops are locked out of such hotspots for good security reasons.”
Clark does not envisage US-style legal wrangling in the future for the UK and expressed confidence that if more people use Wi-Fi it will drive demand for BT’s services.
Clark also confirmed today that BT will be launching a seamless roaming GSM/Wi-Fi phone by the end of the year, adding that he expects Wi-Fi phones to be “very common”, although not ubiquitous in five years time.
BT
Islington sets up free Wi-Fi zone a mile long
22 April, 2005
UK Online Broadband Now From £9.99
UK Online is hoping to bring broadband to the masses by smashing the price point for “entry-level” home broadband down to a wallet-untroubling £10 a month.
The Broadband 500 service will offer unlimited 512K broadband (yes, unlimited!) from just £9.99 ($18.95,/€14.55) per month to UK customers lucky enough to be in their catchment area.
The company has also reduced the price of its unlimited Broadband 2000 (2Mb) service, to £19.99 ($37.75/ €29.13) per month, with its Broadband 8000 (8Mb) service – the fastest home broadband service available in the UK – crashing down to an affordable £29.99 ($56.64/ €43.70) per month.
UK Online will be utilising Easynet’s Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) investment, to offer the new price points for 512K, 2Mb, and 8Mb broadband to users on its network of unbundled exchanges – adding up to over 4.4 million homes nationwide.
Chris Stening, General Manager of UK Online, said, “LLU enables us to offer more innovative products than our competitors. Our unique 8Mb service has led the way on speed and now we are leading the way on price.”
Surfers not used to this level of generosity may be wondering where the catch is, but we haven’t found it yet: we wrote to UK Online and they confirmed that both the Broadband 500 and Broadband 2000 are unlimited services with the Broadband 8000 offering an enormous 500GB monthly download allowance.
The spokeswoman also added that none of their current customers currently signed up to the package have come anywhere near that limit yet.
Suitably tempted, we headed off to their site faster than a crack-fuelled ferret up a drainpipe, only to discover that we weren’t in an “enabled” area.
This meant that the service would have to be delivered via BT’s network, pushing the prices up to £19.99 per month for the Broadband 500 per month and £29.99 per month for the Broadband 2000 – with no Broadband 8000 option.
UK Online
11 April, 2005