Distribution

The new digital ways content was becoming distributed

Skype Zones Offers Wi-Fi VoIP On The Move
Boingo Wireless and Skype have fluttered eyelids at each other, gone for a quiet snog and, ruddy faced, jointly announced Skype Zones, a partnership that offers global Wi-Fi access to Skype customers at (ahem) “revolutionary” prices.
Skype Zones will let Skype’s 45+ million users access the popular VoIP service via Boingo’s network of 18,000 Wi-Fi hot spots worldwide, using a customised Skype version of the Boingo Software.
Currently, unlimited Wi-Fi access for Skype Internet telephony calls is being charged at $7.95 (~€6.53~£4.50) per month, although terms and availability may change as the service is still in beta.
Customers can access Skype on the move via the Skype Zones software which includes Boingo’s Wi-Fi sniffer, connection management and roaming authentication capabilities.
Once connected, laptop flipping punters will be able to make Skype calls and access features such as presence, global user directory, contact lists and instant messages with the Skype software.
“Partnering with Skype demonstrates the evolution of public-access Wi-Fi to include VoIP and other value added applications by allowing greater connectivity and productivity on the move,” said David Hagan, Boingo president and CEO. “Skype’s convenience and call quality have made it as important to travellers as email, and we expect Skype usage to increase traffic and revenue at our network of hot spots.”
Fluffing up the big pink cushions of corporate love, Niklas Zennstrom, Skype CEO purred passionately about his new partner: “Boingo is a world-class company that offers Skype users unprecedented global communications mobility and accessibility, at an aggressive, market disrupting price.”
“Affordable broadband access is fundamental to open communications, and partnering with Boingo to deliver unlimited Skype access around the world at such a compelling price point will generate new customers for both companies,” he added.
The combined Skype Zones service is available immediately as a beta test, with Skype inviting user feedback to help them fine-tune the service.
The Skype Zones client is available for Windows PCs and can be downloaded from the Skype store or the Boingo Web site. The software includes a directory of Boingo’s 18,000 hotspots.
Monthly access to Skype Zones is $7.95 per month for unlimited Skype access or $2.95 (~€2.42~£1.66) for a 2-hour connection.
UK users may find the pricing offered by Ready To Surf a little more ‘revolutionary’, as it gives free Wi-Fi access to make Skype calls in 350 Internet locations across the UK.
Boingo
Skype
Ready To Surf
12 July, 2005
London Explosions Lead To Jammed Mobile Phone Networks
Mobile phone networks in London were overwhelmed for several hours following a series of terrorist blasts across central London.
As news of the attack spread, networks were running at near capacity as concerned Londoners reached for their phones to check up on friends and family.
The huge surge in the number of calls caused problems over mobile networks with many people unable to connect the first time, if at all.
Vodafone said it had reserved some network capacity for the emergency service workers dealing with the disaster, with a spokesperson adding, “because all our switches are at capacity, we need to ensure police and emergency services can communicate.
It would be a section of the network across London, so people can still make calls but it will be more difficult to make a call.”
SMS text messages were, however, still getting through due to its simple store-and-forward mechanism.
As with 9/11, many people turned to the Web for news and updates, resulting in major news sites struggling with the enormous surge in traffic.
News sites like the BBC and Sky both suffered slowdowns or brief periods of unavailability.
Bloggers were also quick to report the news, with the blog tracking service Technorati stating that there were more than 1,300 posts about the explosions by 1015 GMT.
When we looked for updates, we found that Technorati’s Web site had also gone down at 1300GMT.
BBC News report
Technorati
NewsNow
7 July, 2005
Germany: In-flight Mobiles Ban To Be Lifted
A report in German news magazine Focus states that the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing will be lifting its ban on the use of mobile phones on commercial flights.
Despite years of scare stories that a call to Aunt Mabel could send airliners crashing to the earth, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) has concluded mobile phone signals do not interfere with onboard electronics.
Elsewhere, several European airlines have announced that they are also considering the removal of the in-flight ban on GSM phones, something that many passengers have been demanding for years.
Stateside, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposed lifting the ban on the use of GPRS, EDGE and 3G phones onboard last year, with the caveat that only the 1800 MHz variants could be used.
Clearly, in-flight mobile phone access would be of tremendous use to travellers – particularly business users – and could provide a welcome boost to revenue for airline operators.
Of course, being allowed to keep your phone switched on doesn’t mean it will still work. With full GSM access at 35,000 feet unlikely, passengers will have to rely on in-plane systems provided by airlines – who will, no doubt, charge accordingly.
The technology for providing in-flight GSM coverage is already in place, with Swedish vendor Ericsson recently announcing a newly developed ‘GSM on Aircraft’ system.
This uses a version of the RBS 2708, which is based around the RBS 2000 family, the world’s most popular radio base stations.
The company claims that its functionality matches terrestrial systems.
Airbus has announced that it intends to equip its short and medium-range aircraft in the A320 series with this mobile phone technology in the near future.
Hello? I’M ON THE PLANE!!!!
Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Housing
5 July, 2005
DVB-H Digital Mobile TV Pilot For Spain
Abertis Telecom, Nokia and Telefonica Moviles Espana have emerged smiling from a big converging huddle with news of a mobile TV pilot using Digital Video Broadcasting-Handheld (DVB-H) technology.
The project, backed by major regional and local Spanish channels, is said to be the first of its kind to take place in the country and will serve up a feast of converged mobile communications and TV broadcasting technologies.
Scheduled to take place in Madrid and Barcelona from September 2005 to February 2006, the pilot will also coincide with the closing ceremony of the GSM World Congress 2006 in Barcelona.
The trial will let 500 lucky users from Madrid and Barcelona gorge themselves on high quality broadcast TV content from Antena 3, Sogecable, Telecinco, Telemadrid, TVE and TV3 on Nokia 7710 smartphones.
These will be equipped with a “special accessory” to receive the mobile TV broadcasts.
With the units sporting a wide (640 x 320 pixels) colour touch-screen and a built in stereo music player, users will also be able to take part in programme-related interactive services while viewing TV.
White coated boffins have already started technical trials, with the consumer pilot designed to allow the three companies to test the feasibility of the DVB-H technology and the new mobile TV services.
The trial will also allow interested parties to assess new business opportunities, tweak the user experience (ooo-er!) and measure public interest in mobile TV services.
Outdoor and indoor signal and broadcast quality will also be tested to help fine tune the best technical parameters for the viability of DVB-H based services.
The deal gives Telefonica Moviles responsibility for customer support, invoicing and interactive services, Abertis Telecom will be charged with broadcasting the programmes in Madrid and Barcelona – and taking care of technical issues – while Nokia will provide the Mobile TV solution and smartphones for the pilot.
Telefónica Móviles España
Abertis Telecom
5 July, 2005
African Farmers Boost Profits With Mobile Phones
Around a hundred rural African farmers around Makuleke are testing cell phone technology that gives them access to national markets via the Internet, allowing them to compete with the big boys and boost profits by at least 30 percent.
Previously, farmers would travel huge distances to the market in Johannesburg in the hope of selling their goods, often losing half their harvest along the way, but a new virtual trading facility installed on mobile phones lets them sell their produce direct from their small farms.
Farmers can check prices on the phone and choose to sell when prices are high or raise the selling price if demand is high – and by dealing directly with sellers, farmer can raise profits by cutting out the middle man.
“Mainstream farmers have access to market information so they can negotiate better prices. This cell phone enables poor rural farmers to get that same information,” said Mthobi Tyamzashe, head of communications at South African cell phone operator Vodacom, project sponsors.
It’s an example of how technology can bring real benefits to the world’s poorest continent, and cell phone use has already rocketed 100 percent in Africa since 2000.
It’s believed that wireless technology is the best way to bring the Internet to the poor, as Africa’s sparsely-populated and often inhospitable landscapes make a landline infrastructure commercially unviable.
Senegalese company Manobi has already signed up 40,000 customers to their trading platform for farmers and fishermen, allowing customers to access information on a Web-based trading platform via Internet-enabled phones. Users can also request prices and make trades via SMS, or text message.
“It’s a trading platform and a business space,” said Manobi Chief Executive Daniel Annerose. “Small Senegalese farmers even linked up with the French army (on the platform) last year and agreed to supply one of their ships when it docked in Dakar.”
Manobi plans to expand the project into South Africa, followed by the rest of the continent and the Middle East, in partnership with French cell phone manufacturer Alcatel and Vodacom.
Of course, Vodacom and Alcatel aren’t investing all this cash because – like a Miss World contestant – they want to make the world a better place.
There’s a hard business ethic at work here, with the companies keen to expand the cell phone market into rural areas and grab new customers before the competition steps in.
“The idea is that if people start off with your product they will stay with it once they become more profitable clients,” said Vodacom’s Tyamzashe.
The company dished out 360 starter packs and airtime vouchers worth 300 rand each, while Alcatel has handed out 200 handsets, although there are questions as to the long term viability of the scheme – farmers often living on less than a dollar a day may not be able to afford the luxury or surfing the Web on their phones once free airtime runs out.
“Individual projects like this may not be sustainable, but in a wider context it is an important part of getting telecoms out to the rural areas,” said telecommunications expert Arthur Goldstuck, from research group World Wide Worx.
“It is a case of throwing all kinds of things at the wall and hoping that some of it works.”
Hi-tech cell phones help Africans trade crops
5 July, 2005
Cardiff First For BT’s 21st Century Network (21CN)
Their glorious football team many not be first at anything much these days, but BT have announced that Cardiff and the surrounding area will lead the UK with the implementation of their 21st Century Network (21CN).
The £10bn investment will roll out the next generation of converged communications, including telephone calls, broadband and Ethernet services delivered through an Internet-based platform.
The investment will end BT’s dependence on telephony through on Ye Olde public switched telephone network (PSTN) and should – in theory – result in cheaper telephone bills for its customers.
What is this 21CN thing, do I hear you ask?
Here’s how BT describe the technology:
“BT’s 21st Century Network (21CN) is a global IP infrastructure, based upon multi-protocol label switching (MPLS), that carries voice, data and Internet services on a single network. The 21CN offers multiple services across a single network, rather than today’s multitude of networks offering specific services.”
“For BT, this will mean fewer network elements overall and require simpler network management. For BT’s customers, the 21CN will deliver more choice, control and accessibility, as well as increased flexibility, reliability and security.”
BT is expected to begin migrating around 350,000 customer lines in the area during the second half of 2006, with the 21CN programme requiring the replacement of equipment in more than 50 local exchanges along with the implementation of new IT systems to make the technology do its stuff.
Ask BT competitors what 21CN is and you’ll get quite a different answer. Their view is that it is effectively the death of meaningful competition in the UK and that once BT has it in place there will be no incentive to try and unbundle exchanges.
Three cool-sounding “metro nodes” (super telephone exchanges) are to be developed in Cardiff, Swansea and Newport, with 10 new transmission sites also being developed across the region. These will be assessed for power supply, space and logistics planning before the ‘on’ switch is pressed.
First Minister Rhodri Morgan purred, “It’s incredibly exciting for us that Wales has been selected to provide the test bed for BT’s new 21st Century Network This investment by BT clearly signifies that Cardiff and central South Wales is one of Europe’s most dynamic and progressive regions. The end result will transform our personal and business lives, and help attract high-tech industry and services to Wales.”
Matt Bross, BT group’s chief technology officer, said, “This roll-out will be the first time anywhere in the world that customers will have communications services provided over such a radical next generation network.”
“The operational experience that we gain in Cardiff and the surrounding area will enable us to move full steam ahead and deliver 21CN to everyone in the UK – migrating a total of 30 million lines – in just four years.”
“It’s an enormous technical and operational challenge, but will enable customers to benefit from compelling new services.”
How the installation and implementation of the service – and the customer feedback – works out will help BT finalise plans to roll out 21CN to customers across the UK by the end of the decade.
BT 21st Century Network
4 July, 2005
BT Gets Botty Smacked By ASA Over ‘Free Calls’ Claims
Delivering a king size slipper to the ample bottom of BT, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that BT’s PC-based internet telephony service, BT Communicator, does not make “free” calls.
In one of its mailings, the UK telco behemoth had bragged: “BT Communicator – FREE UK Calls for a year” emphasising the freebieness of the deal with the strap line: “The power of BT Broadband to enjoy free calls for a year”.
But a concerned consumer in Kent was having none of it, arguing that by gleefully proclaiming “FREE UK Calls for a year”, BT was pulling a fast one.
The Kentish complainant pointed out that by using the VoIP service he’d rapidly burn up the 1 gig a month usage limit that BT slaps on its Broadband Basic packages – and once he exceeded that limit, he’d have to start forking out for additional time online.
Hauled in front of the ASA, BT mumbled something about the fact that they “had not intended to charge customers for the service, but they had not fully considered the impact of usage allowances on the ability to make free calls”.
The ASA was not impressed, making a savage sauté of BT’s nether regions: “The Authority was concerned that, although the promotion offered ‘free calls’, those calls depleted the monthly usage allowance that a broadband customer paid for on a monthly basis as part of their broadband package”.
Smarting from a derriere rouge par excellence, BT was told “not to describe calls that depleted a consumer’s usage allowance as ‘free’ and to state prominently in advertisements for BT Communicator that making telephone calls depleted a consumer’s broadband usage allowance”.
This ruling raises the suggestion that BT hasn’t fully considered the impact of VoiP usage allowances on its services.
With BT ramping up bandwidth-gorging offerings with innovations like video on demand and smarty pants hybrid mobile/landline BT Fusion handsets, the broadband experience of the future may prove to be a mighty expensive one for consumers.
BT Communicator
ASA
BT thrashed for ‘free’ VoIP call claim
29 June, 2005
Wanadoo Turns Orange
Long time customers of Wanadoo (formerly Freeserve) might be forgiven for forgetting who they’re connecting with after the company announced yet another rebranding.
Promising customers a “smooth changeover”, owners France Telecom will be bringing their Wanadoo service under the umbrella of their high-profile brand, Orange.
The move is part of a strategy to make Orange become “the Group’s international commercial brand for mobile, broadband and multiplay offerings”.
The well-recognised Freeserve name was taken over by Wanadoo just 14 months ago, but France Telecom insist that the latest rebrand will better reflect the portfolio of services to be offered.
These include combined mobile and internet access, a broadband telephone that tells with email notification and remote surveillance of your home through a mobile or a computer.
A spokesman for ~~Freeserve~~, ~~Wanadoo~~, Orange said: “The Wanadoo brand has been an enormous success enabling us to become a broadband leader in the UK. But we are now entering the era of convergence where our customers will experience a new generation of high value and exciting converged services.”
“These services will allow our customers to be able to communicate at home, at work or on the go. A single brand representing these integrated services – the Orange brand – is the way forward.”
The spokesman added that customer’s email services will be uninterrupted, with users still contactable whatever their domain name.
As convergence continues to impact in the teleco sector, France Telecom’s move should ensure that customers will get their mobile, broadband, video-on-demand and fixed line services all from the same company, slapped on the same bill.
If they’re not too confused, of course!
Wanadoo
France Telecom
29 June, 2005
Finland Plums for Flarion Flash-OFDM. Europe to follow?
The announcement of the Finnish 450 MHz cellular data licence isn’t today’s surprise; the surprise is that Flarion – the technology provider – is not announcing that Flash-OFDM is now an ITU standard. There should have been such an announcement: why the delay?
Politics is as important as technology to the future of wireless broadband, and the battle between next generation technology providers is being fought between Qualcomm and Flarion on one hand, and Qualcomm and IP Wireless on the other.
The claim made by Flarion is that if you use normal cellphone frequencies, but add orthogonal frequency division multiplexing technology to it, you can get an order of magnitude more users per cell, and more data per user. Finland seems to have bought the idea: the first Flash-OFDM network contract has been awarded.
It could be the first domino.
Europe has been playing with Flarion technology for a couple of years. Trials have been set up – like the T-Mobile experiment in The Hague last year. And more significantly, there have been rumours of trials in Eastern Europe – countries like Lithuania and Estonia.
Traditionally, Finland has been a pioneer of high speed data, and those countries take their cue for technology from there; and the buzz in the cellular world is that several Governments in former Eastern Bloc territories will now follow suit and buy Flash-OFDM.
The Finnish contract is for re-using the old analogue phone frequencies. The same 450 MHz band is coming up for re-assignment in many European countries, and the front runners there, as in Finland, will be Qualcomm’s CDMA technology.
Qualcomm isn’t going to take that lying down. It’s been trying to lobby European and Eastern European and Middle Eastern comms authorities for a while – unsuccessfully, so far.
A couple of contracts will go to Qualcomm – because it owns majority shares in the network providers there. But this is a major setback for its plan to win back the geography it lost when GSM was invented.
Official details of the announcement include optimistic pronouncements from Flarion, but nothing about what really matters: the need for the Flarion Flash-OFDM technology to be a standard.
The reason for that, say sources in the IEEE, is simple: the standard was supposed to be announced by both the ITU and the IEEE. But the 802.20 process is stalled, and nobody who knows what is going on inside the IEEE doubts that this is because Qualcomm is lobbying fiercely, using “patriotic” arguments.
The result is that in a sense, Qualcomm will win: the ITU will adopt the Flarion technology, and the IEEE will delay its announcement – possibly for months, even years.
That will make the matter look as if it is Europe against America. That in turn could hold up the standardisation process even longer; American technology companies don’t all worship at the CDMA altar, and many of them are making fortunes out of GSM. But Congress is full of people who do not understand this. And Qualcomm lobbyists will not fail to exploit this.
The losers, of course, will be the mobile networks. They need this sort of technology if they are to survive the avalanche of ideas like BT Fusion. Fusion has gone off half-cocked, perhaps; but the idea will be refined, and not only by BT and Vodafone.
What the operators of the world need is a technology that gives them data speeds and capacities, sufficient to match what can be done with technology like WiFi and WiMAX. So Qualcomm may not, in fact, make itself too many friends by forcing people to choose between CDMA and WiFi, when their tests seem to show that there is a viable alternative.
Guy Kewney has been writing on technology for longer than most. He runs NewsWireless.net as well as writing for many including VNU.
24 June, 2005
BB Mobile Demo Seamless 3G/Wi-Fi Roaming With Nortel
Nortel NT and BB Mobile are chuffed to bits to have achieved what they claim is the world’s “first seamless handoff of voice and data services between a third generation (3G) cellular network operating on the 1.7 GHz radio frequency band and a wireless local area network (LAN)”.
What this means in English is that in the future users will be able roam securely between 3G wireless networks and Wi-Fi networks or wireless LANs while checking out websites, blasting out emails, downloading files and doing all the other things that connected cats get up to on a high-speed wireless broadband voice and data service.
The triumphant test calls were made on a live Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) 3G cellular network and an 802.11 wireless LAN, with Nortel’s smarty pants software making it all happen.
This latest test follows on from successful wireless data transmission trials by Nortel and BB Mobile earlier this month.
In those trials, boffins were able to notch up Japan’s first 14.4 million bits per second (Mbps) wireless data transmission via the 1.7 GHz radio frequency band for mobile communications and Nortel’s high-speed downlink packet access (HSDPA) technology.
This managed to ratchet up speeds 30 times faster than commercially deployed networks using UMTS.
Peter MacKinnon, president GSM/UMTS, Nortel, throbbed: “This second demonstration with BB Mobile is an important step in meeting the demand for ubiquitous wireless broadband voice and data services regardless of network or device”.
“The results of these tests with BB Mobile also highlight the level of technological innovation we will continue to bring to Japan’s wireless industry to help drive network convergence and bridge the gap between wireline and wireless 3G networks,” added Nick Vreugdenhil, country manager, Japan, Nortel.
As an aside, we have to commend Nortel on producing the longest disclaimer message we’ve ever seen.
A note at the end of the press announcement: “Certain information included in this press release is forward-looking and is subject to important risks and uncertainties. The results or events predicted in these statements may differ materially from actual results or events….”
Nortel then went on to cover every possible eventuality including – probably – an invasion of bug eye monsters, in a 700 word yawn-a-thon guaranteed to be ignored by anyone who sees it.
Oy! Company spokesperson! Shut it!
Nortel
Softbank
22 June, 2005