Distribution

The new digital ways content was becoming distributed

Vodafone UK Offers Broadband With BT
After striking a deal to use infrastructure from BT, mobile phone operator bigwigs Vodafone have announced that they’re ready to play ball amongst the rough and tumble of the UK fixed-line broadband market
The win-win deal means that Vodafone won’t have to shell out zillions for their own fixed-line network, and BT will benefit from some £400m slithering into their already bloated coffers.
With O2 and Orange already humming along to the sound of four-way convergence – mobile, fixed, broadband and internet and TV services – Vodafone have described the deal as a “strategically important step in the evolution of Vodafone’s business” – in other words, they’d not be lasting long if they don’t.
Or, as a buzzword-heady Nick Read, chief executive of Vodafone UK, liked to put it, “This news is further evidence of Vodafone delivering on its strategy and providing its customers with a total communications solution wherever they are.”
“Total communications solution.” We like that.
Of course, BT and Vodafone are already cuddling up tight after jointly launching BT Fusion in 2005, and striking a five-year managed contract deal in December, with Vodafone providing connection services for almost half BT’s land-line sites.
Vodafone reckons they’ll have the new service up and running before the end of the year and hopes that customers will be keen to lap up their bundled packages of mobile and broadband services .
Vodafone UK
11 September, 2006
Huawei: “Who are We?” If You’re In Comms, You’ll Be Finding Out
In 2004 the networking giant Cisco sued a little-known Chinese company called Huawei for IP (Intellectual Property) theft. Some two months later the case was dropped and settled out of court. Huawei promised to modify their designs, change their software and manuals. Rumours circulating at the time alleged that the Chinese government got involved and told Cisco that if they wanted to operate in China, they should leave Huawei alone.
Huawei was started by People’s Liberation Army officer Ren Zhengfei in 1988, specialising in the research and development of communications systems.
In the west the initial push has been towards core networking equipment for carriers and ISPs (markets which have historically been dominated by Cisco). In this market, Cisco’s normal approach was to offer a base product, then charge extra for additional software feature sets. Huawei’s approach is …. more generous, they include the all of the ‘extras’, while pricing the system around 60% of what Cisco charges for the base platform alone.
Support – throwing people at it
Low, all-inclusive pricing isn’t Huawei’s only winning approach.
If a large customer of Cisco reports a problem, it goes into their tracking system and the customer might be lucky if it’s looked at in a few days. If it’s identified as a bug, it might take a few weeks to isolate and fix.
In China engineering talent is relatively cheap and their universities produce very high class students (and lots of them). This brings Huawei another advantage – huge manpower. When bugs are passed to Huawei, they go to their pool of, something like, 20,000 engineers, leading to the faults being tracked and fixed extremely quickly.
The Big Boys are buying Huawei too
Slowly Huawei started to make big inroads into the high-end markets. BT has even selected them as part of their 21st Century Network, (21CN). It’s rumoured in the market, that this will lead to the demise of Marconi (who failed to be selected, even though they’d been a partner of BT for decades).
Cisco – that’s just the start
If you’re in any form of communication business, don’t kick back and think, “Well Cisco needs a competitor. We should be OK.” Huawei’s plans extend far beyond merely eating Cisco’s lunch.
If you get a chance to wander into Huawei’s showroom in China, you may be lucky enough to get taken into a hangar the size of a football field. In one small area there’s the ISP/Telcocore kit, we’ve mentioneed. The rest of the space is filled with other technologies such as IN (Intelligent Network – the brains behind telco voice networks), GSM, GPRS, Edge, 3G, NGN (Next Generation Networks i.e. IP-based voice and data networks like BT’s 21CN), xDSL (both end-user and network), optical (driving fibres), routers and LAN switches and of course consumer devices for it all.
Huawei are currently supplying all sorts of companies. Ever wondered who makes the new USB 3G datacard for Vodafone (the USB one that works on Windows, Mac and Linux)? Huawei.
Initially Huawei picked a ‘small’ market to concentrate on, but now they’re ready to attack the bigger ones. They have the equipment, and the resources to make a huge dent into the existing players markets of all sorts. It won’t just be Cisco suffering.
Huawei
7 September, 2006
Toshiba HD DVD: European Dates Announced (Photos):IFA
The first HD-DVD players for Europe have just been announced by Toshiba at their press conference at IFA in Berlin.
There will be two models available initially, both before the end of the year. This follows the US release earlier this year. Toshiba were at pains to point out that the European machines are a second generation of player.
HD-E1
The first to be introduced will be the Toshiba HD-E1, coming out in November this year. Capable of playing both at 1080i and 720p. An HDMI 1.2a port will be included. Audio playback will be Dobly 2.1. Expected price €599-€699.

HD-XE1 (pictured below)
The following month (December) will see the release of the higher quality player, the HD-EX1.
It will add playback at 1080p to the 1080i and 720p of the HD-E1. HDMI support will be the latest release HDMI 1.3. Dolby 5.1 will also be supported.

The price will be €899-€999, depending on the country bought in.
Both machines will feature Ethernet ports, enabling Internet connections for interactivity and to access additional content.
Current DVD’s will also playback, but will be up-scalled to the highest resolution available to each machine.
The units will be released in three regional batches, with the UK, France and Germany (amoung others) leading the pack; the rest of Europe will follow; brought up by the previous Eastern Europe and Iceland.
Toshiba
1 September, 2006
O2 Germany Goes DSL, UK Actively Considering: IFA
O2 Germany have just confirmed that they are spreading their communications wings beyond mobile phones, by moving into DSL, and fixed line voice provision.
The move had been discussed for some time following their take-over by Telefonica, but until today, the date of 27 October hadn’t been confirmed.
There are three levels of offerings – €35/month for a 4Mb/s service; €50 including a flat-rate phone service; or €55 for 16Mb/s and flat-rate. Current O2 mobile subscribers will pay €5 less/month.
What about O2 UK
The obvious question for a UK-based publication was if O2 UK was planning the same.
An O2 spokesperson said that she understood that O2 UK was in discussion with broadband providers in the UK, although no dates were expected.
It is absolutely no surprise that a mobile operator is moving in to providing fixed line services too – If they don’t, they’ll be left hanging in the wind, as all of the other companies offer a single bill for all their communication services.
Package
O2 Germany have identified two reasons for people not taking up a DSL service at home. While early adopters and singles have embarrassed DSL, strangely families have not been signing up, as they’ve been worried about the complexity of installing and configuring the service.
To tackle the installation, O2 have come up with a completely automated install DSL modem/router. Simply by plugging the unit into the telephone line, the unit will self-configure. In the few cases that this doesn’t work, they will offer to send someone to the house. This shows their level of confidence in the self-install – sending out engineers is very expensive, especially at the low monthly prices they’re offering.
O2 Germany said they weren’t frantic about gaining subscribers and hoped to gain 100k-150k DSL customers within the first 6 months. They currently have 10.2m mobile subscribers.
31 August, 2006
TV’s Annual Scottish Play: EITF Roundup
Last week was the annual get together of TV ‘luvvies’ in Edinburgh and this year, as for the last few years, the current moguls felt it necessary to behave like Scrooge, reflect on their previous misdemeanours and take a bit of a look at TV to come.
TV “yet to come” was epitomised by Ashley ‘Zeitgeist’ Highfield, who managed to appropriate the Long Tail in his round up of what the future has to hold (just to prove we can jump on bandwagon too – don’t forget there are still copies to be won at Digital Lifestyles).
There was a rapprochement between the Blair and Brown of the TV world, that figure of Calvinistic integrity John Birt and the once swashbuckling radical Michael Grade acknowledge the existence of one another. After 20 years of cold shouldering they’re talking again, so John deliberately avoided mentioning possible ‘top slicing’, where Channel 4 and any broadcaster with Public Service credentials might receive a portion of the BBC’s some say generous, licence fee take.
The spectre of Banquo’s ghost in the shape of everyone’s (now) favourite caterer, Mr Charles Allen, was there and delivered the keynote address, he of course blamed all and sundry for the mess ITV is in – ‘nothing to do with me guv’ should have been the title.
And of course there was the figure of fun brought down this time by Sir Alan Sugar, poor Simon Shaps, the man who brought us Celebrity Love Island was asked by the UK’s cut price Donald Trump in a festival remake of The Apprentice “Why do I get the feeling that you’re the kind of fella you find hiding behind the bushes?” Simon should be so lucky that he can find some bushes in the barren terrain of ITV primetime.
In a sign that TV executives are at long last spending some time staring into their crystal balls, rather than monitoring the value of their plummeting share options, talk was abound that the annual get-together could have a makeover and become a media festival in 2007.
30 August, 2006
Samsung 70in HD LCD TV
Samsung is getting ready to unveil what it reckons is the first 70in HD (high-definition) LCD (liquid crystal display) panel.
Due to be announced later this week, this mother of all HD screens will measure a full 5 inches wider across the diagonal than the current largest high-definition LCD panel in use.
Samsung also say that their wall-filling slab o’screen will support the so-called 1080p ‘full HD’, which makes up 1,080 horizontal lines of resolution and progressive scanning.
The declamatory display serves up a hefty 1,920 by 1,080 pixels resolution, supports a massive 1.07 billion colours with video signals reproduced at 120Hz, compared to the 60 Hz of conventional Full HD LCD panels- this higher speed lets moving images be reproduced with much higher clarity.
Samsung will be wowing the crowds with a prototype at the IMID (International Meeting on Information Displays) 2006 technical conference that is taking place later this week in Daegu, South Korea.
Executive Vice President Kim Sang-Soo of Samsung Electronics was ready to parp his company’s PR trumpet: “Our new 70-inch LCD is not only significantly larger, but also sets a new benchmark of excellence in terms of video image reproduction, viewing angle and image quality. We’ve designed it to dramatically enhance the large screen LCD TV user’s viewing experience. ”
Naturally, the pricing will be in the ‘arm & leg’ department, but even those with chequebooks vast enough for this beastie will have to wait, as the monster screens aren’t expected to start shunting off Samsung’s assembly line until the first half of 2007.
Samsung 70in HD LCD TV Specifications
Display size: 70″
Resolution: FHD (1,920 by 1,080 pixels)
Mode: a-Si
Brightness: 600nit
Contrast ratio: 2,000:1
Number of Colours: 1.07 billion
Color saturation: 92%
Response time: < 8ms
Viewing angles: 180° top, bottom, left and right
No. of polarizers: 1
Terminology
Full High Definition (FHD): The FHD requirement for a wide screen (aspect ratio of 16:9) is 1,920 pixels across by 1,080 rows high (the highest resolution available).
Polarizer: A multi-layered optical film is placed at the front and back of the LCD panel as a filter that only allows light waves of a certain rotation to pass through.
Nit: Not something that crawls around your barnet but an abbreviation for the measure of brightness properly called candela per meter square (cd/m2).
Samsung
22 August, 2006
More PE Takeover Talk At NTL
The much heralded NTL/Telewest merger, expected to be the saviour of the UK cable industry, has become the subject of another Private Equity takeover rumour and the likely winner, if it goes ahead, is Richard Branson.
A quick recap
Branson did a deal with NTL that saw Virgin mobile become part of a four-play (geddit?) proposition, allowing the operation to use the Virgin brand and in return received 10.6% of the company. The merger of the three companies has not yet bedded in, and customers across the country are still waiting for the promised improvements in the notoriously poor levels of customer support.
Flextech the programming arm of the company, which was up for sale at the time of the earlier merger (I hope you’re paying attention), is likely to again be offered up for acquisition to media companies. A great way for potential new investors to make a chuck of their cash back.
Market reaction
The market has viewed the possible takeover positively, as it considered the cable company is still under valued following its 20% share price drop in the last three months. More recently shares in the company, quoted in the US, gained around 8% last week, on the possible fresh takeover.
What would the impact be?
If a takeover goes ahead, then the focus will be on installing a strong management team to leverage the offering against well established competition from BT and the newer entrants to the market, like Tiscali whose purchase of Homechoice has put them in the triple-play space, and Sky who are rolling out a broadband proposition under their own well known brand.
21 August, 2006
UK Analogue Radio Gets A Bashing
DAB in the UK has had a good week with prices dropping to an all time low, with High Street retailers are now making available a DAB radio with CD player for under £50.
To add the icing to the digital radio cake, Dixons the domestic electronics giant that made its name in radio more than 50 years ago, has announced its decision to drop conventional analogue ‘steam radio’ from its portfolio (But they appear to make a habit of grabbing press about this type of thing, having done it with VCRs already).
Although a date has been set for UK analogue TV to closedown, no such decision has been made for radio, and with radios outnumbering TVs at something like 4 to 1 any planned switchover is bound to be some way into the future.
DAB radio coverage in the UK is approaching 85% but the rollout in the rest of the world is patchy, with markets like the USA favouring a pay-model satellite-delivered radio service with brands like Sirius. Competition from the drm (Digital Radio Mondiale) standard and commercial operators like Worldspace are also creating uncertainty in territories that are characterised by dispersed populations across large land masses.
There are now over 270 UK analogue radio transmitting licences issued and they’re still leaving OFCOM’s shelves as fast as they become available, but with a promise of a further national DAB multiplexes and a likely radio presence from Channel 4, the future of radio is looking increasingly digital.
Sky’s satellite hybrid gnome receiver has so far failed to dazzle and, like the semi-portable internet radios, it’s perceived as overly complex for the average punter who prefer the Freeview-like DAB proposition.
Not all retailers of radio see the disappearance of analogue radio as inevitable in the near future. There are important extra features to tempt people, like EPG, pause live and track identification, which make digital services far ‘sexier’ than conventional wireless,
What will show DAB has arrived? We reckon that once the DAB pirates hoist their Digital aerials, the technology will have well and truly arrived.
18 August, 2006
Mobile Internet Population Hits 34.6 Million In US
With more Internet-enabled handsets on the market, it’s not surprising that more punters are getting a bit of Web action on the move, with email and weather sites being the top two most visited mobile sites.
According to mobile data spods Telephia, the population of the “mobile Internet” clicked up to 34.6 million users in June 2006, up 6 percent from the 32.7 million users recorded by the company in January.
Their figures also revealed that once punters are hooked up to the mobile Internet, their addiction grows, with users notching up an average 34.3 sessions in June, compared to 31.4 user sessions in January.
Bernard Brenner, director of mobile content for Telephia commented, “Even as the subscriber rate grows, the number of people using the mobile Web is also increasing. It’s an increasing number in an increasing market.”
Top US Mobile Websites (June 2006)
The top ten of the most popular mobile Websites contains the expected big names, with Yahoo Mail being the most viewed, registering a unique audience of 6.51 million mobile users, accounting for 3 percent of subscribers.
This is followed by the Weather Channel with 5.9 million users and a 2.7 percent share, with ESPN.com in third place with 5.3 million users /2.5 percent.
In fourth place is Google Search (4,356/2.0 per cent) and then MSN Hotmail (3,441, 1.6 per cent), MapQuest (3,067/1.4 per cent), AOL Mail (2,907/1.4 per cent), CNN (2,799/1.3 per cent), Yahoo! Weather (2,740/1.3 per cent) and, finally, Yahoo! Search (2,531/1.2 per cent).
When it comes to mobile browsers, Openwave, Motorola and Nokia browsers have the highest adoption rates, with Openwave registering more than a quarter of all mobile Web users.
Telephia
16 August, 2006
DVD With CSS To Be Burnt In Store, Then Home
After refusing to entertain the idea for many years, the DVD Copy Control Association (DVD CCA), are ‘actively considering’ letting DVD to be burnt in-shops and by video download services.
The only caveat? ‘Special blank DVD discs’ would be require as they will use the current DVD protection scheme, Content Scrambling System (CSS). It also give the studios to charge consumers extra money for the disc, that they’ll use to burn films that they also be paying for (or are we just getting too cynical?).
It’s anticipated that early uses of this will be kiosks in public places, probably shops when the public will be able to select films, possibly the more obscure ones (see Long Tail), and walk out with a DVD disk that they can play in the DVD player.
DVD CCA are saying that once they get that up and working, they’ll work on a version that consumer can use at home. They’re talking about letting it record films, TV shows – clearly predicting the time when TV programs will not be freely recorded. Some online services like MoveiLink have been considering this recently.
The DVD CCA is a vehicle for the film industry to control and dictate the technical specification of DVDs.
The film industry really had to do something to counter what lots of people are doing anyway, making copies of their DVDs to use in their holiday homes or in their cars. This has been made possible by CSS being cracked many years ago by Norwegian computer programmer, Jon Lech Johansen, otherwise know as DVD-Jon.
CSS was significantly flawed by its design, as it uses fixed software keys to encrypt the content of the DVD. These keys were kept secret, so when some of those became revealed, the protection was cracked.
DVD CCA
11 August, 2006