Digital-Lifestyles

Networking

  • WiFi Pricing in Europe is Over Complex

    At the IBM sponsored Wi-Fi Business Development Summit in Paris, consultancy BroadGroup has warned providers to pull back from complex pricing systems for Wi-Fi services, while it also warned major industry players to increase marketing emphasis on monthly subscriptions.

    In simpler language – more transparency is needed. The more schemes and user choice on offer, the more complex pricing structures become it would seem, and BroadGroup define the current schemes as being ‘too finely segmented’. Using source material based on two recent European surveys of 122 Wi-Fi service providers and 83 GPRS operators, BroadGroup said that the findings suggested Wi-Fi is trending towards tariff structures that would leave users unable to comprehend what they were being charged. Whether this is the intent of the WiFi operators isn’t clear.

    But what alternative is there for WiFi service providers if differentiating offerings is the only way to drive marketing strategies, the current mix leaving users with 365 tariff schemes across 28 countries – one for each day of the year.

    It’s true, when you are bamboozled with too many price-saving schemes and special offers you end up being so confused that you just opt for the one you understand the best, and not the one that necessarily cuts your bill. And this is borne out by the fact that BroadGroup provided examples showing that if users did not know how many MB they consumed each month, they could be penalised by selecting an inappropriate tariff.

    Furthermore, most Web sites did not provide an interpretation of MB usage anyway. Even if they all did, you’d wonder how many customers would actually have enough time to study them in detail. BroadGroup is currently conducting a study of business travellers in Europe to provide insight into data usage and what users understand as mobile data.

    BroadGroup research also found that average pricing in the most popular timebands – 1 hour, 24-hours and 1 month had remained largely unchanged over the last 18 months. 24 hour pricing is now offered by 58% of all service providers in Europe with an average price of €15.08. However in a market where prepaid methodologies now dominated, the consultancy believed there was a need to concentrate on the promotion of monthly subscriptions to sustain business growth.

    The consultancy also noted that European Wi-Fi prices continued to be more expensive than the US and Asia.

    BroadGroup

  • Akimbo IP-VOD to Sell Through Amazon

    Akimbo IP-VODWe’ve been keeping our eye on Akimbo, an IP-delivered VOD (Video-On-Demand) service and have learnt that they are launching and have signed on Amazon.com as its official retailer. Akimbo has just launched its video-on-demand service and signed on Amazon.com as its official retailer. Akimbo is to video what Apple’s iTunes is to the iPod. The Akimbo Player, utilising an easy “Queue and View” format is a set-top box that delivers hundreds of mainly niche program videos to television through a broadband-Internet connection allowing consumers to choose content and view it on-demand – or maybe even later.

    Amazon.com will be the exclusive retailer for the 2004 holiday season, and the Akimbo Player which can hold about 200 hours of video, is now available in the Amazon.com Electronics store for US$229.99 (~£125, €180) [Buy]. Consumers can sign up for the Akimbo Service by visiting their site at a cost of US$9.99 (~ £5, €8.10) a month. Sadly, for content licensing reasons we assume, it’s only available in the US currently.

    The service offers consumers 50 categories of content, including mainstream, classic and independent films, foreign language, news, health and fitness, sports, children’s programs, and education. At no additional charge you can download old series such as “The Jewel In the Crown” from Granada International, consult comprehensive independent film catalogues from Undergroundfilm, GreenCine, Amaze Films, and IFILM.  Or you can receive news specials and features from CNN, more conventional classic movies from Turner Classic Movies and cartoon episodes from the Cartoon Network. Premium services are also available for access to foreign language programming.

    The Akimbo Player utilizes widely adopted technology for playback including Windows Media 9 technologies for audio and video compression, and digital rights management. The Akimbo Service automatically delivers an onscreen program guide and subscribers choose which programming they would like to download to the Akimbo Player. Then, each time Akimbo Service subscribers turn on their TVs, they have new videos, previews and editorial information waiting for them.

    Akimbo has competition from other VOD suppliers waiting in the wings, including Disney’s Moviebeam, TiVo and Netflix, all who have plans for 2005.

    Akimbo

    Buy Akimbo Player from Amazon

  • Targeted adverts for P2P

    AlmondNet, Inc. and Intent MediaWorks will separate the appropriate from the irrelevant to exclusively bring you only the good ads.

    Should your browsing habits make you fair game for any advertiser or should you only be subjected to ‘relevant, targeted interactive ads’?  The latter option is obviously a lot more preferable, and if done in the right way, it shouldn’t be too much of a nuisance.

    Two technology companies in New York and Atlanta are trying to achieve the latter option and have consequently signed a deal whereby advertisers can target specific ads to P2P users.

    During the download process users are served ads via the INTENT MediaWorks client, using AlmondNet’s technology, which is cookie based and they say doesn’t collect personally identifiable information, adverts should be targeted.

    The two companies involved are AlmondNet, Inc., a New York-based advertising technology company that offers web publishers targeted ads based on audience attributes, and Intent MediaWorks, an Atlanta-based company that provides a technology platform for secure distribution of content via legal peer-to-peer networks. They have signed a co-operation agreement whereby Intent MediaWorks will use AlmondNet’s patent-pending behavioural targeting technology to target ads to P2P users who use their secure distribution platform.

    Intent MediaWorks already has technology that allows recording artists and music companies to distribute their digital content securely via major P2P systems like Kazaa, Gnutella, and Bit Torrent. INTENT say they already has 600 artists on its books for music distribution.

    Ads come in good, bad and ugly flavours, not to mention irrelevant and downright inappropriate. As usual it is the 18-34 year old that is being targeted in this space, and while one has to be slightly suspicious about users being targeted based on their online behavior and interests, since no ad campaign is altruistic, at least they are being spared the irrelevant and inappropriate.

    We’re not certain that anyone who is downloading via a P2P network will be looking at their screens while the files are coming down, it’s normally a fire-and-fire operation. If this is widely-so, we’re not sure who is going to pay to advertise?

    INTENT MediaWorks,LLC
    AlmondNet, Inc

  • TI to put DVB-H in Single Chip

    Texas Instruments have just announced they will be building a single chip that will that will allow cell phones to receive digital television broadcasts over a wireless network.

    Currently if a mobile phone manufacturer wanted to do this they would have to include three separate chips – a TV tuner, a signal demodulator and a channel decoder, but the TI chip, codenamed “Hollywood”, includes all this functionality already.  “Hollywood” will support two emerging digital and open TV standards for the wireless industry – the European, DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld); and the Japanese Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting – Terrestrial (ISDB-T).

    Texas Instruments say that the chip will be able to receive a live TV broadcast at up to 30 frames per second, twice the rate that some of today’s top notch phones display video clips.

    While the chip is already being trialled, manufacturers probably won’t receive samples until 2006, pushing commercial deployment to 2007.

    It’s unclear if users will watch TV on a tiny mobile screen.  Furthermore, it is not yet known which mobile phone manufacturers will provide the phones, although Nokia, who announced last year that they are going to put television tuners into all their cellphones, (having already done so with the 7700) could be a contender.

    A time might come when we forget what the mobile phone is really for.  We’ll be so busy playing music and video games, taking photographs, or watching TV that receiving a call will become an irritating nuisance.

    Texas Instruments

  • WiFi – it’s Everywhere … and Now With Voice

    My local coffee shop and corporate America have one thing in common – they are adopting wireless. WLAN hotspots today are as exciting as the record store of the 1950’s. 

    There are lots of players in the market and already some of them are joining forces to increase their chances of success, small operators needing the resources of bigger players.  The enterprise community needs wireless for its notebook wielding road warriors, and consultants Frost & Sullivan expects total subscription revenues in the European WLAN hotspots market to rise from around € 18 million (~$22,664,522) in 2002 to in excess of € 1 billion by the end of 2006.

    Frost & Sullivan’s study indicates that the key to success lies in selecting the locations most frequented by business travellers, and it would seem that a marriage of convenience between WiFi and VoIP would be very beneficial.

    Boingo Wireless, a CA-based Wi-Fi hot spot operator and aggregator, have just done deals with KPN HotSpots in The Netherlands and The Public Network (TPN) in Switzerland, adding 290 Wi-Fi hot spots in key travel locations in these countries to the Boingo Roaming System. With these new additions, Boingo’s worldwide network includes more than 11,000 hot spots with 5,600 locations in Europe.

    Boingo have also set up shop with Vonage Holdings Corp., a leading broadband telephony (VoIP) provider in North America, in an effort to simplify voice over Wi-Fi services and make them more accessible to customers. This move is the first phase of their VoIP strategy, whereby mobile travellers using the Xpro from Xten, can access the Vonage service from almost any Internet connected personal computer.

    Boingo and Vonage will conduct a trial before the end of the year and the proposed bundle will include a Xpro SoftPhone from Xten and a headset that will allow the user to communicate over the Internet from any of the Boingo hot spots.

    Frost & Sullivan
    Boingo
    Vonage

  • London Schoolchildren to get Broadband Learning at Home

    Soon, too soon for some, there will be no excuse for not having your homework done as London education authorities are planning to install broadband in the homes of London schoolchildren. , This initiative by the London Education authorities is timely in the light of a recent OECD report that identified “Disappointing” the use of ICT (computer & technology) in upper secondary schools, even in the most advanced countries, despite major investment outlays over the past 20 years.

    With broadband already in more than 80 per cent of London classrooms, the plan now is to extend the initiative and allow pupils at primary and secondary schools, access to high-speed Internet services at home. That means a portal that supports a million people, who will have a personal log-on, 25MB of space, their own email and of course, access to a cornucopia of online learning materials.

    As we’ve previously reported extending learning to the home has been very successful in trials in Kingston Upon Hull in the UK where, using the KIT TVIP service, pupils are able to work on the school’s servers using a keyboard, a Set Top Box and their television.

    It looks like there will be very few excuses left for not attending class either, unless you are at death’s door, since the London Grid for Learning (LGfL) has created an education network that shares IT resources through classes held via video-conferencing, virtual field trips and personalised pupil programmes. Virtual field tripe, eh?  Looks like you won’t even be able to say the damp brings on an asthma attack when the tree identification trip can be done from the comfort of that lovely classroom. The personalised learning feature will facilitate a managed learning environment, through online facilities.

    When you put the words children and Internet together the result sparks fear in the hearts of many parents, so readers will be relieved to learn that the content filtering and managed access in place on the machines in schools is being extended to the children’s homes.  In fact a service called ‘LGfL at Home’ will filter the home broadband service.  Parents can have a password to circumvent the filtering while children can access the online learning resources.


    Last April Digital Lifestyles looked at Kingston Communication’s collaboration with an East Yorkshire school that has led to an exciting project to engage pupils in interactive learning, both at home and in the classroom. (story link)

    London Grid for Learning

  • Philips’ Connecting the Community Project

    Philips have kicked off a new project in Singapore to bring together content and service providers to equip a sample of households with broadband and connectivity products. Under the auspices of Singapore’s Infocomm Development Authority, the project will run for six months and residents will will participate in various ‘e’ services, including, Philips say, e-health, e-learning and e-security.

    Philips are particularly interested in healthcare and the company are looking at options for providing services within the consumer’s home via a broadband connection. Applications include pop-up reminders for mediation appearing on TV screens, and the company currently delivers the service through SMS.

    “We believe e-health services over broadband is one of the driving forces for establishing connected communities where patients are empowered to manage their health more effectively, and in the process help healthcare providers control costs,” said Andreas Wente, President and CEO of Philips Electronics Asia. “These personalized healthcare services would not only aim to help people with chronic conditions such as congestive heart failure manage their health more effectively, but ultimately help in maintaining a healthy digital lifestyle – for example, delivering weight management or employer health programs via a broadband enabled TV.”

    The Connecting Community project is supported by Philips’ own InnoHub test bed facility, which crates a linked environment of communication and home entertainment devices that speak to one another. The InnoHub also will function as an ‘idea management facility’ for exploring the feasibility and commercial potential of innovations.

    “This collaboration in Singapore embodies our vision of an emerging Connected Planet since it observes the daily habits and routines of normal families and, more importantly, identifies how their natural behavior responds to the latest state-of-the-art connectivity solutions,” said Cesar Vohringer, Chief Technology Officer, Philips Consumer Electronics. “Through an understanding of how these families interact not only virtually within the home but now through their communities, Philips can further realize its new brand promise by applying these discoveries in the creation of products that are advanced, easy to experience and designed around these consumers.”

    Singapore’s IDA

  • Microsoft and Cisco Announce Security Partnership

    Microsoft and Cisco will announce a partnership today to make the security features of their respective range of products compatible. By tying up security at both the server operating system and hardware layer, the two companies hope that they will beat hackers and virus writers, whilst at the same time regaining the faith of corporate customers.

    Microsoft and Cisco products hold a particular fascination for hackers, who enjoy exploiting various vulnerabilities in their platforms. Some corporate customers have switched to Linux and Unix as server operating systems on the grounds of security, as there are simply less viruses and malware on those systems.

    By ensuring interoperability, customers should have an easier time deploying security policies and integrating products from both companies on their networks.

    The next big step for the MS/Cisco partnership will be the release of Longhorn Server in 2007, when Microsoft’s own Network Access Protection scheme will be compatible with Cisco’s own Network Access Control features.

    Microsoft will announce the news here later on Monday

  • HomePlug AV – A 200 Mps Network From Your Power Sockets

    NEWS UPDATE: HomePlug AV Now Official

    The HomePlug Powerline Alliance has entered the final stages of the development of their specification for the HomePlug AV standard, and is now inviting companies from home networking, consumer electronics, computing and other related fields to contribute to the final version of the spec.

    HomePlug AV is designed to accommodate the home networking needs of future homes – and as such, can move data around the house at up to 200 Mbps. Rather than using WiFi or cat 5 cables, the system goes back to the tried and tested technique of using power sockets – after all, every home has them, usually right by where their TV and computers are installed. HomePlug are aiming for a global standard that can be deployed in markets across the world – regardless of domestic voltage and frequency.

    200 Mps is intended to accommodate music, multiple HDTV streams, broadband internet and other data around the house.

    The standard is not just aimed solely at domestic users, however: “This is a truly great technology that has broad applications both inside and outside of the home,” commented Oleg Logvinov, president of the alliance and president and CEO of Arkados, Inc. “With HomePlug AV, people will be able to transfer high-definition video and digital audio by simply connecting the device to an electrical outlet. The technology inside is complex, but it is designed to be incredibly easy-to-use.”

    The HomePlug Powerline Alliance arrived at the technology by assembling elements from the best technologies submitted to the group, building what they claim is the best platform yet.

    The network can operate at near capacity even on noisy power lines – I certainly don’t want to see static on my 2001 DVD whenever the central heating clicks on at 5am.

    As households acquire and use more digital technology, efficient networking is more critical than ever – yet current solutions are tricky for non-technical users to install and maintain. A simple, yet powerful solution that is literally plug and play will take the headaches out of home networking for millions of consumers.

    HomePlug

    UPDATE: HomePlug AV Now Official

  • Orb Networks’ PC Content Sharing

    Next up in the media portal race is a service from Orb Networks. Their technology allows PC users to stream content off their home computer to any other compatible device that’s connected to the internet. This means that you can watch programmes you’ve recorded using your Windows Media Centre PC on a compatible mobile phone of PDA almost anywhere.

    To do this, Orbs’s technology takes music or video from the user’s PC and then determines the best format, codec and bit rate for the target device and then streams it from your home internet connection to the device you’ve requested it from.

    Orb intend to expand the product beyond PC users – they want PVRs to incorporate the technology also, which will prove trickier. Indeed, TiVo have just had a lucky scrape when they had a similar feature approved by the FCC earlier this year, after criticism from the MPAA over its security.

    Tim Bajarin president of Creative Strategies at Orb Networks explains why they’ve produced their media portal: “Many of today’s digital entertainment devices and services place limitations on the amount or type of content consumers can access. People may be able to watch live television remotely from a cell phone or notebook, but are restricted to watching only a handful of stations. Additionally, today’s digital music services often try to lock users into using one particular device and media player. Very simply put, Orb takes away these boundaries giving the consumer what they want – uninhibited, spontaneous remote access to all of their digital home media.”

    Content providers media companies don’t want their content going anywhere near the internet – even if you technically have a right to view it when ever you like. Expect Orb Networks to come under fire from the usual favourites when the service launches in mid-November. When available, it’ll cost subscribers US$9.99 (€8.11) a month, or US$80 (€65) a year.

    James Behrens, chief executive officer of Orb Networks said in a statement: “Orb Networks has developed a brand new way for people to be connected to their digital media all the time from anywhere in the world. We have found a way to bring consumers what they want – simple access at any time. Consumers can watch live TV on their laptop, schedule a DVR recording through their PDA, or even listen to their music on their cell phone while jogging, biking or shopping.”

    Orb Networks