Networking

MPAA to pursue film file-sharers
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced it would follow in the footsteps of the recording industry and legally pursue people who swap pirated copies of films over the Internet.
Dan Glickman, head of the MPAA, said legal action would be taken against “hundreds of people” seeking damages of up to $30,000 (~€23,000, ~£16,000) per shared film.
“This was not an easy decision, but it must be done now before illegal online file-sharing of movies spins out of control,” said Glickman. “Illegal movie trafficking represents the greatest threat to the economic basis of movie-making in its 110-year history.”
The crackdown will target individuals who deal in illegally copied cinema products on file-swapping networks, as well as the pirates themselves.
The MPAA claims the US film industry loses more than $3bn (~€2.3Bn, ~£1.6bn) every year in potential global revenue because of piracy. But Glickman said the figure did not take into account the losses from thousands of illegal online downloads that were swapped every day.
The MPAA draws particular attention to the popular file-sharing application, BitTorrent. Written by Bram Cohen, which is designed to offer the files as fragments for faster, easier transfer from peer-to-peer (P2P). One destination website for Bit Torrent fans, Suprnova.org, offers users free downloads of thousands of movies, TV shows, music, software and games files. The site is run on donations and some website advertising.
A parallel initiative sees the MPAA hoping that new software will encourage parents to identify their children as “file-sharing felons”. The software, designed to identify and removal of potentially infringing material and P2P applications on the PC, is part of the MPAA’s war on file sharing and will be released for free by the MPAA at a later date.
Online music file sharing is measured in billions of files downloaded, but the MPAA says that under 150,000 movie titles are traded each day in the US on file sharing services.
MPAA
www.suprnova.org
18 November, 2004
Ofcom to BT: Equivalence or else
After a long period of deliberation Ofcom, the UK regulator, has come to its conclusion on the Strategic Review of Telecommunications Phase 2 (SRT 2 to those in the know). It won’t be forcing the split of BT Retail and BT Wholesale.
For a very long time, most companies in the UK telecoms market have bemoaned BT Retail getting a better deal from BT Wholesale (they own the network) than they were able to achieve. In the competitor’s eyes, the market hasn’t been balanced. Many felt that BT has been expert in ‘playing’ the regulator, especially Ofcom’s previous rendition, OfTel – only making changes just before they were forced.
In SRT 2 Ofcom investigated three options, Full deregulation; Enterprise Act investigation; BT to deliver real equality of access. They’ve come down on the side of the latter, in their words
“Ofcom calls on BT to provide prompt and clear proposals which will achieve these behavioural changes and bring about the level of confidence required.”
and if equality isn’t achieved, they threaten to use the second; an investigation into the market under the Enterprise Act 2002, with the potential for a subsequent referral to the Competition Commission.
In theory, when equal access to the network is given, the need for Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) to provide competing broadband services will be reduced.
When we spoke to Video Networks, the company behind the London-based IP VOD-services, they said the news today would “not impact their LLU plans”. EasyNet, a significant unbundler, didn’t get back to us before we went to press.
The SRT 2 is now open for public consultation until 3 February 2005.
It would appear that the threats from Christopher Bland, Chair of BT, in the Telegraph at the weekend that “No BT would equal No Broadband” were unnecessary.
Update: OfcomWatch comment
18 November, 2004
Motorola Moves into Mesh Networking
In a move aimed at boosting its broadband networking, mobile giant Motorola has announced it’s purchasing US-based equipment supplier MeshNetworks.
Acquiring the wireless mesh networking company “brings sales, support and brand recognition that a startup could never match in a million years,” says Rick Rotondo, vice president of marketing for the Maitland, Fla-based company. (We suspect he was exaggerating for effect – commonly called hyperbole).
The purchase by Motorola further legitimises the whole mesh networking concept. Only last month, North American rival Nortel announced its mesh networking product line, aimed at providing easier WiFi coverage without the need for multiple access points. In the UK, LocustWorld has been selling its Mesh AP boxes to hotels, hospitality venues and rural community broadband service providers with a great deal of success.vMesh networking provides an innovative method to build complex data networks very easily. Using the intelligence of each component, meshing helps them to join into a self-organising structure. This approach differs from the traditional “top-down” design of data networks, and provides many benefits, including flexibility, speed and ease of management, making it simply to deploy widespread networks with low overheads. It’s particularly suited to wireless networks, where the connections can’t be predicted in the same way as a wired network, catering for mobile nodes, instant growth and unpredictable variations in reception and coverage.
Mesh networking builds up a wide spread multi-hop network, making connections between neighbouring nodes on demand. Once connected the nodes can explore the network and establish their routes through it, finding the resources that they need automatically.
“The acquisition also represents another step in Motorola’s commitment to deliver seamless mobility to all of our customers,” said Greg Brown, president of Motorola’s CGISS. The purchase will benefit “all of our businesses ranging from mission critical and enterprise markets to automotive and home entertainment applications,” said Brown.
SP Comment: Mesh networks are far from a new idea. Groups such as London-based Informal.org have been enthusiastic about the possibilities of a wireless mesh for a long time. For over three years they have seen the possibilities of a wireless mesh supplimenting the wired networks offering free, ubiquitous access and when combined with VoIP, replacing traditional phone services. When viewed in these terms, it is incredible how long big business takes to catchup with grass roots ideas.
Motorola
MeshNetworks
Informal.org
18 November, 2004
SBC sign $400m Microsoft IPTV/TVIP Deal
SBC, the largest supplier of DSL connections in the USA, has announced a deal to spend $400m (~€307m, ~£215m) with Microsoft over the next ten years to purchase their Internet Protocol TV (IPTV) software. SBC has been testing Microsoft’s IPTV platform since June 2004 and they now intend to start field trials in mid-2005 and plan commercial availability in late 2005.
The Microsoft product, whose official name is a bit of a mouthful – Microsoft TV IPTV Edition, provides comprehensive security including subscriber and end-to-end digital rights management (DRM), enabling the content to be taken on to the portable devices that support Microsoft’s DRM.
In the first quarter of 2005, construction is due to begin on the SBC “Project Lightspeed”, the company’s initiative to deploy fibre closer to customer locations, providing significant amounts of bandwidth. It is expected to reach 18 million households by the end of 2007.
Microsoft have, of course, had enough opportunity to get TVIP software right. It has been estimated that Microsoft has spent up to $20Bn pursuing their ambitions of being the supplier of choice for TV software for the next-generation of Set Top Boxes (STB’s). We briefly used Microsoft’s TVIP service at IBC this year and found it pretty impressive.
This is the second major TV announcement for Microsoft this month following the Comcast deal.
As the world moves to IP-delivered content, and the source of that content becomes significantly less important, the power that sits with the broadcaster today becomes transferred to the owner/supplier of the box that is used to access the content – the gatekeeper. It is likely that there will normally only be one gatekeeper per household. The race is now on for companies to establish themselves in that role.
SBC
Microsoft IPTV
18 November, 2004
Grokster and Mercora Team Up for P2P Radio
Grokster, the peer-to-peer (P2P) software provider, and Mercora have rumours that Sony are interested in working with Grokster
Grokster
Mercora
16 November, 2004
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
15 November, 2004
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.
12 November, 2004
Taiwan’s Leading P2P Web Site Under Investigation
Taiwan’s largest P2P operator, as we’ve covered)with P2P software distributor Grokster in the US, Web services should perhaps consider adopting their model to clearly benefit three parties – record labels, P2P operators and consumers – paying careful attention to copyrights.
Kuro
12 November, 2004
FCC Rules VoIP Outside State Regulations
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has ruled that US states are now barred from imposing telecommunications regulations on Internet phone providers, treating Voice Over IP(VoIP) calls no differently than any other application on the Internet.
The significance of the ruling is that US states cannot subject VoIP providers to their rules – the difference between a draconian and very light regulatory environment for the carriers. However, FCC Chairman Michael Powell and two of the four FCC commissioners suggested that states still have a role to play – namely to protect consumer interests.
Of course, Internet phone service providers were pleased with the decision. Vonage, for example, had postponed plans to expand into several rural areas while it awaited the FCC action. It can now ramp up those plans again and expects to announce it has entered those new markets in the next two to three months, according to a company representative.
The ruling will come as very bad news to the four regional Bell operating companies, which had a near-monopoly lock on local phone services until Internet phone providers came onto the scene. In a statement, BellSouth Vice President Jonathan Banks urged the FCC to “create a similar regime for all IP-enabled networks and services.” He describes the FCC’s decision as a “critical step towards encouraging the deployment” of such services nationwide.
Cable providers, such as Time Warner Cable, most of which now sell VoIP plans, fear that they’ll be left out of the ruling because their services run over privately owned and operated networks, not the public Internet. “In a perfect world, it would be great in just one proceeding to deal with all the issues, but we can’t do that here,” said FCC Commissioner Kathleen Abernathy. “It would be a mistake to be on sidelines and try and deal with these other regulatory framework issues.”
However, a tougher FCC ruling would have hurt projections that VoIP services will expand from the 1 million homes foreseen at year’s end to about 10 million by the end of the decade. As traditional phone carriers see more local calls flow over the Internet rather than their own more expensive networks, they have been adding their own VoIP-based services to lure business customers away from those companies that specialise in Internet phone technology.
On a slightly different note, Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell said on Tuesday he planned to stay at the agency, possibly through 2007 when his term expires, now that President Bush has been re-elected. Powell, the son of Secretary of State Colin Powell, became a commissioner in 1997 and was elevated to chairman in 2001 by Bush. “It’s been one of my great privileges to serve under his leadership and right now that’s what I plan to continue to do,” Powell told reporters. “I’m happy where I am for the moment”, although he also stated that he plans to stay “no later than 2007.”
US FCC
10 November, 2004
Vonage & Linksys Connect on VoIP WiFi Router
Linksys’ consumer and small-business oriented Wireless-G Broadband Router is unusual in the way that it offers four devices in one box: a Wireless-G access point, built-in 3-port switch to connect wired Ethernet devices, router so that multiple users can securely share a single cable or DSL Internet connection, and two standard telephone jacks (each operating independently) for carrying Voice-over-IP (VoIP) calls. It also comes with Vonage’s Internet telephony service, so you can start making high-quality low-cost phone calls over a broadband connection out of the box – even when you’re browsing the Internet.
With the added Vonage service, US-based users should get low domestic and international phone rates, Caller ID, Call Waiting, Voicemail, Call Forwarding, Distinctive Ring, and lots of other available special phone features. You can also choose any free local dialling US area code, regardless of where you live, add a virtual phone number in any area code, or even a US-wide toll-free number. Vonage offers price plans ranging from $15 to $50 a month, depending whether you want primarily local or long distance calls, how many inclusive minutes you want, and whether you are a consumer or business buyer.
“Recognising the need for residents and small businesses to have myriad of options when setting up their networks, Vonage is excited to partner with Linksys to continue to lead the way in transforming how people communicate,” stated Jeffrey A Citron, chairman and CEO of Vonage Holdings Corp. “More importantly, the Wireless-G Router bundled with Vonage’s service is the next step in modernising an archaic telecommunications network. No longer will people be stuck in the past and tied down to communications systems that fail to offer true mobility.”
“By providing customers with both the hardware and service they need to make high-quality phone calls over their broadband connection, customers get a better overall value and user experience,” said Mike Wagner, Linksys director of worldwide marketing. “Marketing the product and service together enables us to educate more customers about the benefits and cost savings VoIP can provide.”
Other key features of the Wireless-G Broadband Router (54 Mbps), with the oh-so-catch name of Linksys WRT54GP2, include support for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), along with a range of voice compression algorithms with echo cancellation, DTMF tone detection and generation. It can also handle FSK and DTMF caller ID, and FSK voicemail. There’s also 256-bit encryption and support for both Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), and the router can serve as a DHCP server, has a built-in SPI firewall to protect your PCs against intruders and most known Internet attacks, supports VPN pass-through, and can be configured to filter internal users’ access to the Internet.
US buyers will also get a $50 rebate slip that they can use against the Vonage service after their initial 90 days of service.

:SP: Vonage are pushing hard to expand their VoIP offering. They are spending large amount of money on advertising in the US (rumoured to be around $88m), and now, with this tie-up with Linksys, taking it directly to consumers who are buying broadband equipment. The support for both WiFi and SIP leaves the door wide open for expanding in to wire-free calling too.
Vonage Linksys WRT54GP2
9 November, 2004