Category: Distribution

McDonald’s and Softbank will be offering free Wireless Internet access (WiFi) from twenty of their restaurants in Japan for six months, to coincide with the World Cup.

Telewest are running a special broadband promotion in the UK. The 4.3m households that lie within Telewest a franchise will be able to get the first three months of the blueyonder service for £13.48 not the usual £25 charge.

Just in case we were thinking of buying an Xbox for its broadband capabilities, Sony are reminding us that they are planning a late August launch of their online network and the availability of its competitively priced ~$40 network adaptor.

BT have today said it will sell its direct or no-frills ADSL service for as little as 27 ukp from autumn this year.

RealNetworks have updated their video CODEC to version 9. Significantly they are giving the option to play back on a TV screen and a computer monitor. They are also claiming 30% better compression and smoother playback at 56k. I would assume that the smoother play is due to being able to get more data to the viewer – it the 30% better compression.

A Maui, Hawaii, USA company is planning to launch the first 3G service in the US. Maui Sky Fibre will offer the $30/month data-only service to the 91k population on the 750 sq. miles island via a PDA -sized modem.

Ireland is hoping to have widespread broadband by 2005 and supply as many public services over these as possible.

The former CEO of Scottish Telecom has arranged funding for a new DSL supply company in the UK. He asserts that accessUK has sufficient funding to convert and run over 1,000 exchanges and will be initially targeting business customers. The UK will then have three companies capable of doing this country-wide, the others being Bulldog Communications and BT.

UK-based ISP Freeserve has today announced the heavily reduced price of £84.99 for installation and modem of its ADSL offering.

BT have announced another satellite-delivered high speed Internet service, this time at a significantly cheaper price, because the service is delivery only with requests being made via a normal phone line. End user monthly costs are estimated as £20-30 but installation is £400.