Digital-Lifestyles

Distribution

The new digital ways content was becoming distributed

  • 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

  • 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.

  • Vodafone 3G Services Go Live!

    Following on from Monday’s story, Vodafone’s betting heavily on 3G this Christmas, read on for further details of Vodafone’s new offering.

    Timed to attract consumers in the lucrative pre-Christmas market, Vodafone’s third-generation (3G) service offers quicker music, video and e-mail downloads compared to GPRS. With 3G you can access all of Vodafone’s current services, as well as new video calling, video messaging and video clips specifically for the 3G network. Vodafone is supporting the new service with an enhanced Web portal designed to offer easier access to the 3G services.

    The mobile operator is aiming at the youth market, which has been influential in the growth of services such as text messaging. It hopes the key attraction will be music downloads, as mobile operators look to compete with Internet music download services such as Napster and Apple’s iTunes.

    The roll-out will be concentrated in densely populated urban areas, covering about 30 per cent of the population, according to Vodafone. Although the new 3G technology promises to provide data transfers at near-broadband speeds, it has taken ages for firms to launch their 3G services due to technical glitches. Although streaming audio and video will the prime marketing driver, it’s likely that data on the move, not video calls, will drive the market.

    Vodafone’s ‘enhanced’ 3G content includes a downloadable music catalogue, a made-for-mobile drama inspired by the TV series 24, together with exclusive videos, pictures, animated greetings and wallpaper including the launch of Movie of the Month, starting with Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Sports fans are promised access to UEFA Champions League and Barclays Premiership video clips, together with exclusive Manchester United and Ferrari mobile video content.

    “Vodafone live! with 3G will dramatically change the way our customers experience their Vodafone services and we are confident that Vodafone live! with 3G will be a success”, said Arun Sarin, chief executive at Vodafone. “Customers want communication, organisation, entertainment and information on the move and they will increasingly turn to one device to deliver these needs: their mobile phone. Vodafone live! with 3G will become increasingly mass market next year and we expect over 10 million customers to be using Vodafone live! with 3G by March 2006 in our subsidiaries.”

    As reported in September, Vodafone has ordered 10 varieties of 3G handset from Sharp, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and Samsung, with built-in features including MP3 music players and 2-Megapixel camera phones. They will be subsidised as aggressively as its existing 2G handset range, so high-end users who agree to a contract will be entitled to a free phone. The launch is also international, extending to Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

    www.vodafone-i.co.uk/live/

  • Comcast turns on Microsoft’s TV software

    Microsoft’s new TV software, which includes an interactive programme guide (IPG), will support advanced digital cable services, including the launch of dual-tuner digital video recorders to 1 million customers. The move is expected to further attract consumers to video-on-demand (VOD) services.

    The announcement is the first major US deployment of Microsoft’s Foundation Edition software. With the launch of dual-tuner DVRs supported by Foundation Edition, Comcast customers will be able to record their favourite programmes digitally using an on-screen interface that Microsoft says is easier to use and navigate compared to the TV Guide Interactive software which dominates the US cable market. Viewers also can pause and rewind live television broadcasts, build a customised list of recordings by using the DVR’s repeat-recording capability to record multiple episodes of favourite shows, as well as record high-definition television (HDTV) broadcasts.

    As part of the change, for an extra monthly premium, Comcast will start offering set-top cable boxes with built-in digital recording capabilities and hard disks for storing recorded television – effectively giving the cable box the same functions as stand-alone devices such as TiVo. The price for existing digital-cable customers will be an additional $9.95 per month on top of their current bill. For current high-definition subscribers, the price to upgrade to the digital recording box will be $4.95 per month.

    Microsoft TV Foundation Edition software will be available immediately on new advanced digital set-top boxes with dual-tuner DVR technology. The software will be automatically downloaded in phases to all other set-top boxes in Washington state over Comcast’s digital network in the next few months.

    “Comcast is a leader in providing new products on our unparalleled two-way digital platform, and we are always looking at new ways to bring our customers more value, choice and control,” said Len Rozek, senior vice president of Comcast’s Washington market. “The Microsoft software will help our customers get an amazing cable television experience. As Comcast continues to roll out advanced video products – such as VOD, HDTV and DVRs – it’s crucial to deliver a user experience that allows customers to easily navigate the many choices they have to find what they want, when they want it.”

    Foundation Edition 1.7 helps cable companies maximise revenues by providing a better, more integrated customer experience and better merchandising opportunities for premium TV offerings and managed content services. It gives multiple service operators the opportunity to up-sell new and existing services, whilst striving to improve consumer satisfaction and retention. It also provides consumers with easy access to interactive games and information portals such as local weather, sports and news.

    Enhancements to the software include a ‘smart’ progress bar that appears during playback and shows how much of the programme remains and how much buffer space is left, a channel mapping feature that lets you record a series even when it moves from one channel to another, and smart series options that let you record a specific number of episodes, skip rebroadcast episodes and reruns, set priorities for programs in case episodes conflict, and input the start and end times of programs. In addition, buffering lets viewers record the entire show they’re watching even if they don’t start recording until halfway through the program. Knowing Microsoft, there’s also the opportunity somewhere down the road for Media Center PCs to connect to Comcast video services, as well. And if the company manages to strike a deal with other digital TV providers, such as BSkyB, most of us will have Microsoft software in our living rooms as well as our workplaces.

  • Taipei Bathed in Wi-Fi in 2005

    Taipei plans to make wireless Internet access available across the Taiwan capital by the end of 2005, joining a small number of cities offering Wi-Fi networks. According to a Reuters article, the network will reach almost 90 per cent of the capital’s population of 3 million and aims to make accessing the Internet as easy as using a mobile phone. The system will enable subscribers to easily access information and services from governmental agencies and other service providers wherever they may be in the city – either by 3G mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA) or laptop computer.

    Joining a handful of cities offering Wi-Fi networks, a connecting system may soon become vital in attracting and retaining businesses, as well as catering to students and other youngsters. City-backed wireless networks also help to ensure that all neighbourhoods have equal access to the system. The downside is that government-backed projects like this will hurt the private sector, and many will believe that installing Wi-Fi using tax-payers money is a waste when most would rather see taxes go towards putting more police on the street or cleaning up the city – especially those who already have broadband in their homes.

    “In most cities in the world the coverage is small, but Taipei’s [network] is designed for a population of 2.6 million,” said Andy Lai, project leader for a Hewlett-Packard consulting team working with the Taipei City Government. Taiwan’s Q-Ware Systems, which won Taipei’s tender to build the network, plans to spend US$70 million on infrastructure, setting up 15,000 to 20,000 access points around the city, according to HP. Other companies involved in the project include Intel, Microsoft and Cisco Systems.

    Q-Ware will charge users for access. Qware has to foot the expense of installation and pay the Taipei City Government royalties for the right to run the subscription business for a period of nine years, while the Taipei City Government must provide administrative assistance and give Qware Systems the right to use public facilities such as utility poles, bus stations and overpasses for system installation.

    The number of subscribers of the new WLAN system is expected to reach 500,000 by the time the system is completed and increase to 1.1 million by the end of 2006. It will provide a platform for the government to better serve citizens and for the citizens to obtain information easily at a very low cost, which in turn should attract more subscribers and thereby generate more online business opportunities. New York, San Francisco, Amsterdam and Jerusalem are among cities offering or planning city-wide networks.

  • Cisco CTO challenges WiMax

    Cisco Systems CTO Charles Giancarlo has announced that his company will not be backing WiMax (IEEE 802.16) technology. The announcement came during his brief keynote address at the Next Generation Networks conference in Boston, where Giancarlo asserted that Cisco will only be “providing the backbone infrastructure that may be behind any WiMax deployment. Cisco has not invested in WiMax. DSL and cable are already there, and they are much more deterministic.”

    WiMAX is a third-generation wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances. Wi-Fi and WiMAX are actually complementary technologies, according to Intel, as WiMAX is a ‘last mile’ technology – it connects businesses and homes to the high-speed Internet. Wi-Fi provides the wireless LAN connectivity within a building or a home. The two technologies have been built as close cousins, and should work together to provide the best connection for the users needs. The technology may well find its way into airport hotspots, for instance, but it’s unlikely service providers will invest in building two parallel wireless broadband networks.

    An implementation of the IEEE 802.16 standard, WiMAX provides shared network connectivity at speeds of up to 75MB/s and as far as 30 miles, which should be enough bandwidth to simultaneously support more than 60 businesses with T1-type connectivity and hundreds of homes at DSL-type connectivity. However, on the average a WiMAX base-station installation will likely cover between three to five miles, so home networking is not the compelling application for WiMax. Today, last mile connections are typically made through cable, DSL (digital subscriber line), fibre optic connections and even standard phone lines. The ability to provide these connections wirelessly, without laying wire or cable in the ground, promises to greatly lower the cost to provide these services.

    A further benefit of the WiMAX standard is that it relies mainly on 2GHz to 11GHz bands as opposed to the ‘overcrowded’ 2.4GHz band used by WiFi. The specifications of WiMAX avoided many of the mistakes that went into the WiFi standard, allowing longer reach, Non Line Of Sight (NLOS), greater bandwith, and better encryption. However, the 30 mile radius should be taken with a grain of salt, as it would most probably only apply to a true line of sight point-to-point connection under ideal atmospheric circumstances.

    Giancarlo reminded listeners at his speech that many wireless technologies have come and gone over the years without finding success. “This is what went wrong with MMDS (multichannel multipoint distribution system) and LMDS (local multipoint distribution system). The economics became very bad very quickly.”

    However, this hasn’t stopped Telabria, who has already announced plans to build the first WiMAX network in the United Kingdom. The network, which is now under construction, will deliver high-speed wireless broadband services to residential, business and enterprise customers in the South East of England, and provide backhaul for Telabria’s growing installed base of WiFi hotspots in the region. The service will commence trials in January, with a commercial launch by mid 2005. “We’re extremely excited about the network we’re building,” said Jim Baker, Telabria founder and Chief Executive Officer, speaking at the WiMAX World Conference in Boston. “WiMAX is a revolutionary standard which, over the next few years, will fundamentally change the structure of broadband networks”.

  • Nokia Integrate with Ford & Nissan

    In many countries, particularly the UK, it is an offence to use a handheld phone or similar device when driving. Most of us know that if caught you get a £30 fixed penalty or up to £1,000 on conviction in court (£2,500 for drivers of goods vehicles, buses or coaches). As a result, mobile phone companies have been revelling in the opportunity for up-selling handset customers. This additional sales opportunity has now been extended to car manufactures, with a recent announcement that Nokia has devised a hands-free communications solution with Bluetooth connectivity for automobiles.

    In the first mobile-OEM auto manufacturer partnership of its type to date, except for the CDMA-based ONStar system (but in this case the whole system was branded GM and not co-branded with the GSM radio provider), Nokia’s latest communications device is an integrated vehicle solution that will first appear in Nissan’s Primera. Ford has also announced that it plans to support the system in some of its Focus models. Long overdue, the system integrates into a vehicle’s central console and offers hands-free operation using an N-FORM control system with a large colour display. The system also features a baseplate onto which various mobile holders can be mounted, which should make it compatible with a wide range of mobile phones from different manufacturers.

    The mobile phone is operated using the Primera’s N-FORM controls and 7-inch colour display, where you can also browse the built-in phonebook downloaded from your mobile phone, scroll through saved numbers either alphabetically or by speed dialling, initiate and take calls, as well as put a call on hold in order to answer a second call. Other phone functions can be voice activated, using various speaker-dependent or speaker-independent commands. An external GSM antenna should improve sound quality in hands-free operation.

    “We are pleased that our co-operation with Nissan has brought such successful results. Together, we have found a perfect solution to completely satisfy even the more demanding users of automotive communications systems”, says Marcus Stahl, General Manager Automotive Accounts, Nokia Automotive. The integrated communication system is already available in Europe although it’s not clear at this stage if the device comes as standard with the cars, whether you have to change the base plate in order for it to work with other phone manufacturers’ products, or whether there will be a ‘standard’ interface devised at a later date for all car makers.

    It’s also interesting that Nokia is now shifting from the handset production side to the hands-free kit side, if indeed the system supports all hands-free capable mobiles – including competitors. Bizarrely, this puts the company amongst competitors such as JCI, Lear and other third-party ‘integration’ companies who already do this for aftermarket install systems.