Broadband – Page 24 – Digital-Lifestyles

UK Gets 36Mbps Wireless Broadband

Libera, a UK company aiming to reach 75% of the country’s business with wireless broadband, will shortly be offering a 36Mpbs service in London Docklands. The service goes live in July, and will be rolled out to Greater London by summer 2005. Subscribers can choose connectivity anywhere between 1 and 36Mpbs – making it the fastest in the world for the time being.Libera’s network is carried on the 28GHz band of the radio spectrum, one of the rare instances of that band being used.

Paul Momtahan, marketing director, emphasises the high tech nature of the network: “if they need more bandwidth we can turn it up, if they need less, we can turn it down”.

Libera are not commenting on the pricing of their service yet, but expect it to compare with business SDSL connections.

Libera

BT Launch New Broadband Satellite Service, Satellite Broadband 500.

Literally aimed at rural businesses, BT have introduced a new broadband satellite service providing 500kps to areas where there there are currently no ADSL facilities. The service is carried on Intelsat’s IS-907 satellite and covers the entire UK – if it’s successful, BT has an option to take the service into Western Europe.

The product, Satellite Broadband 500, comes in two flavours – Plus and “Lite”. Lite is for single users with a need for web access, whilst Plus is for multiple users requiring LAN connectivity.

The service will be available from BT Retail, but will also be offered wholesale for other ISPs and operators to resell. Subscription charges are competitive, starting at UK£46.99 (€75) per user for Lite and UK£85.99 (€129) for Plus. However, equipment prices start at UK£699 (€1048), and standard installation is UK£250 (€375). Subscriptions come with a dedicated BT support network.

Jonathan Wing, Head of Satellite Broadband at BT Broadcast Services, said in a statement: “There is a clear and demonstrated need for businesses, ISPs and others in the UK to have high-quality, high-speed, satellite broadband connections. Satellite broadband enables businesses and ISPs to be effective and competitive, wherever their offices are located.”

Cable and Wireless Buy Bulldog – What’s the Threat to BT?

Cable and Wireless’ recent purchase of Bulldog means that they acquire four years of local loop unbundling experience, 38 ready-equipped exchanges and a number of well-marketed, innovative products. All for the bargain price of UK£18.6 million (€28 million) – though Bulldog’s net assets at the end of 2003 were only UK£1.6 million (€2.4 million). This puts C&W in a position to offer unique services, and not just resell products from BT Wholesale.

Bulldog have long been critical of BT, and have said some fairly dramatic things over the last few months. My own personal favourite quote was from Richard Greco, when talking to The Register in 2001: “Oftel needs to force BT to move. And if BT doesn’t, then Oftel should point the gun – and pull the trigger.” However, he was quite gushing about BT when agreed to carry their SDSL products some months later: “It really is a powerful combination.”

Bulldog’s frustration at BT stemmed from the glacial pace that the communications giant was unbundling the local loop. Bulldog have installed their own equipment into 38 exchanges, a figure that C&W now want to raise to 200. They will doubtless use this position to tempt more ISPs to jump from bitstream services to LLU – as C&W chief Francesco Caio said in a statement: “The acquisition of Bulldog will accelerate our ability to deliver directly connected DSL solutions for our existing and potential customers with an experienced team specialising in LLU services.”

Bear in mind that it’s not just BT that is causing frustration with LLU – across Europe the entire process has been slow and as yet only a small percentage of lines have been unbundled.

BT has already demonstrated that it’s worried about complaints about its LLU conduct and progress by making huge cuts to wholesale prices and promising faster progress. With C&W breathing down its neck even more, expect those exchanges to be unbundled faster than ever before.

About Bulldog

Broadband is Killing Television

A survey from Wanadoo has revealed that people’s TV viewing and Internet habits are changing as broadband becomes more popular.

The Fishbowl 2 survey asked 1000 people to keep a diary of their media use over a two week period.

Broadband subscribers spend 45% more time online than narrowband users, and cite entertainment as their use after 6pm – making the Internet the second most popular media in the prime time slot. Broadband users also claimed that the Internet was the only medium that satisfied all of their media needs (i.e. news, music, information, entertainment etc.) all at one time.

Key findings from Fishbow 2:

TV has declined by 12% (almost 3 hours) in viewing time
Broadband users take a higher share of media time at 16%, compared to average Internet share at 12%
Broadband users spend 11% less time watching TV than Narrowband users, and 45% more time online
This equates to 2.1 hours less time watching TV per week, but 2.1 hours more time online – indicating Broadband’s direct cannibalisation of TV consumption
After 6pm weekdays and 2pm weekends, the Internet is the number 2 medium behind TV for all demographic groups
TV cannibalisation is occurring at the above times for Broadband users. Weekday evening for example, Narrowband Internet share is 10% and 77% for TV; Broadband Internet share grows to 18% but is only 68% for TV
Needs fulfilled online are changing from ‘traditional’ Internet needs. Searching specific information and communication has decreased as a need fulfilled online whereas entertainment is growing
Entertainment is the top need fulfilled online after 6pm, as with TV
The Internet is the number 2 “prime time” entertainment medium, with Broadband eroding time spent watching TV

Wanadoo on the report

BT to Offer Itemised Broadband Bills

BT Wholesale will be offering itemised bills to its customers from 28th May. Subscribers will be able to view each user’s time spent online and the amount of bandwidth used.

“Previously, BT wholesale gave service providers the start and stop time for each user. With the improved functionality, we are able to record a breakdown of the bytes used both upstream and downstream,” said a spokesperson for BT Wholesale.

BBC Creative Archive licensing to be based on Creative Commons

In a significant step forward towards the opening of a portion of the BBC’s archives, the BBC today made their intentions for the Creative Archives clearer to other UK broadcasters and public sector organisations. The Creative Archive, originally announced by Greg Dyke in 2003, plans to offer the British public free access to some of the BBC’s audio and video programming.

This afternoon the first meeting of an external consultative panel, which included many UK media holders, heard the BBC’s decision that it will base the Creative Archive usage licence on the Creative Commons (CC) model. This confirmation follows some speculation on the subject. The CC model turns copyright on its head by explaining the ways that the content can be used rather than saying it cannot – or Some Rights Reserved as they put it. By happy coincidence, Creative Commons 2.0 was released yesterday.

By applying a CC-type license to the content, the BBC will enable individuals in the UK to download released content to their computers, share it, edit it and create new content. Commercial reuse of the content will not be allowed.

Professor Lawrence Lessig, chair of the Creative Commons project was clearly excited: “The announcement by the BBC of its intent to develop a Creative Archive has been the single most important event in getting people to understand the potential for digital creativity, and to see how such potential actually supports artists and artistic creativity.” He went to enthuse “If the vision proves a reality, Britain will become a centre for digital creativity, and will drive the many markets – in broadband deployment and technology – that digital creativity will support.”

Lessig has been invited by the BBC to be a permanent member of external consultative panel, which is wise because he is clearly at the centre of Creative Commons and politically wise in the BBC becoming closely associated with the whole movement. This announcement will also be a huge boost in profile for Creative Commons.

Paul Gerhardt, Joint Director, BBC Creative Archive explains: “We want to work in partnership with other broadcasters and public sector organisations to create a public and legal domain of audio visual material for the benefit of everyone in the UK.” Those attending today’s meeting included Channel 4; the British Film Institute; the British Library; ITN; JISC; The National Archives; the Natural History Museum; the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council; senior figures from the independent production industry; BBC Worldwide. The BBC plans to keep those attending abreast of the project, while encouraging them to follow the same route to opening their own archives.

This news will give further hope to those who feel the BBC is a leading light in the usage and availability of content in a Digital Lifestyles world. Gerhardt added “We hope the BBC Creative Archive can establish a model for others to follow, providing material for the new generation of digital creatives and stimulating the growth of the creative culture in the UK.”

Read our interview with Paula Le Dieu, Joint Director on the Creative Archive.

Creative Commons

OECD Urges Governments to Drive Broadband Growth

A new OECD report urges governments to use competition rather than subsidies to promote the growth of broadband in remote areas. Subsidising national operators to roll out broadband in these areas reduces competition and innovation, and may mean that subscribers get stuck with an expensive, yet poor quality, service.

The OECD report, The Development of Broadband Access in Rural and Remote Areas, claims that the arrival of new start-up companies offering wireless broadband at low prices is causing established telecoms companies to speed up their broadband delivery process and cut prices. Indeed, this has already been seen in the UK to an extent, with BT’s suddenly rapid exchange upgrades and dramatic cuts to broadband subscriptions and local loop unbundling.

The number of broadband subscribers in OECD countries is expected to reach 100 million by Q3 2004, up from 82 million at the end of 2004 and 56 million at the end of 2003. Broadband penetration now extends to 75% of OECD household, with 1 in 4 already enjoying a service.

However, the report details that availability will continue to vary widely for at least the next few years:

Over 90% of households in Belgium, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom can connect to broadband services. Other countries expected to join this group by the end of 2004 include Finland, France and Germany.
Countries with larger geographical areas such as Australia, Canada, and the United States are likely to have DSL coverage of between 80% and 90% over the next few years. In Canada and the US, broadband via cable modem already reaches 85% and 80% of households respectively.
A number of countries– such as the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, and Ireland – have only recently launched broadband services.

The OECD report

BT and Microsoft Team Up to Offer Broadband in Scotland

BT and Microsoft are trialling a new service in Scotland that offering software and broadband to small and medium-sized businesses. Connected And Complete is a package consisting of broadband installation, Microsoft Office Small Business Edition, twice yearly health checks, a help desk and tools for making a website.

Jerry Thompson, BT’s head of business broadband, said: “There are well developed IT and financial services sectors in Scotland and we think they will be early adopters.”

If successful, the service will be offered to businesses throughout the UK.

BT are doing quite well out of broadband at the moment – year end results show a 30% jump in turnover for their new services, bringing in UK£3.4 billion (€5 billion) in revenue.

Nice to see something nice being tried out in Scotland for a change, since other trial runs in the past have included nuclear waste, intercontinental ballistic missiles, the poll tax and Malcolm Rifkin.

Microsoft on Connected And Complete

BT’s 90% Broadband Coverage

BT made a further 22 exchanges broadband-enabled yesterday, taking coverage in the UK to 90% of the population.

BT Wholesale chief executive Paul Reynolds said: “This is a stunning achievement. Nine out of 10 people are now connected up to a broadband exchange and we’ve announced plans to get us to near universal coverage by next summer – well ahead of earlier predictions.

“Our pioneering approach to broadband rollout has been widely recognised, most recently with the OECD rural broadband report putting Britain ahead of the pack for broadband availability compared to the other G7 nations.

“BT has put the UK at 90 per cent ADSL coverage today with our closest competitor countries in the G7 aiming for this level by the end of 2004. By that stage we’ll be past 95 percent and well on the way to topping 99 per cent by summer 2005.”

You can bet that the last 10% will be the hardest – some of of the remaining units are the oldest, remotest exchanges, not nice easy ones in the middle of cities. However, BT is aiming for 99.6% coverage by summer 2005. This represents an enormous amount of work still to be carried out, however: 2,652 exchanges are broadband-enabled, with 2,366 in the programme for next year.

BT’s Press Release

AOL Leaves Japan to eAccess

AOL Japan is being sold to eAccess for 2.1 billion Yen (€15.38 million) in yet another shuffle. The division was once DoCoMo AOL, a joint venture between NTT DoCoMo and the US media giant Time Warner.

DoCoMo pulled out last November as subscription numbers to it’s PC/cell phone link service were thought disappointing.

eAccess says it will keep most of AOL Japan’s 200 employees along with the AOL branding.

Yahoo