Digital-Lifestyles pre-empted and reported thousands of articles on the then-coming impact that technology was to have on all forms of Media. Launched in 2001 as a research blog to aid its founder, Simon Perry, present at IBC 2002, it grew into a wide ranging, multi-author publication that was quoted in many publications globally including the BBC, was described by the Guardian as 'Informative' and also cited in a myriad of tech publications before closing in 2009

  • Sony Announce Four New Phones

    Sony Announce Four New PhonesOn the same day that Nokia went forth and multiplied with seven new phones, rivals Sony Ericsson announced four new handsets, aimed at increasing its presence in the low end and mid-market sectors.

    Sony Ericsson K608i The K608i 3G handset employs Sony Ericsson’s now-familiar dual use format, with the phone being used vertically for calls and horizontally for taking pictures.

    The 1.3 megapixel camera includes an active lens cover for swift activation, with video calls taken care of via a dedicated video telephony button.

    There’s a reasonably large 1.8 inch 262k colour TFT screen onboard, and the K608 comes bundled with the usual suite of business applications, PIM and PC-synchronisation tools (via USB or Bluetooth).

    Gameloft’s Vijay Singh Pro Golf 2005 comes preloaded with the phone in the hope that customers’ chequebooks will form a yawning chasm in the direction of Sony Ericsson’s Fun & Downloads portals.

    Sony Announce Four New PhonesThere’s 32MB of memory space on the phone for shunting on ringtones, wallpapers, still shots and video footage, with a built in music player and FM radio taking care of multimedia.

    Sony Ericsson S600

    The all-swivelling Sony Ericsson S600 phone is claimed to be “ready to party” with features “to enhance the lifestyles of those who live their lives to the fullest”.

    Like an expensive marital aid, the phone also promises “maximum fun and excitement in an ultra stylish package” according to Sony Ericsson. It almost makes you wary of putting it next to your ear.

    The tri-band phone employs the same ‘jack-knife’ mechanism seen in last year’s S700, although there’s no ‘Mean Streets’ spring-action on offer, which kind of spoils the effect.

    Inside, there’s 176×220 pixel, 1.8″ wide, 262 K colour TFT screen with two stereo loudspeakers and a MegaBass function enhancing the sound.

    Sony Announce Four New PhonesThe S600 comes with 64MB of onboard memory, but sadly, there’s no memory card on offer – presumably it’s been left off so as to not compete with the higher spec’ed K750 model.

    Gamers might be enticed by the S600’s widescreen mode which enables games to be played horizontally on screen. There’s also support for multi-player peer-2-peer gaming via Bluetooth.

    Finishing off the package is Bluetooth and USB 2.0 connectivity, a 1.3 megapixel camera, NetFront web browser, 40-tone polyphonic alert and a RDS FM radio.

    Sony Ericsson Z520

    Described as possessing “cool curves in a smooth shell”, the Sony Ericsson Z520 is a compact quad-band phone “for the fashion conscious.”

    With worrying sexual undertones, Sony Ericsson’s announcement salivates over the “smooth sleek body” of the clamshell which, apparently, creates “a small and inviting handset” with the added bonus of an illuminated “rim of blue lights” (stop tittering at the back).

    “The new Z520 is specifically designed for the stylish younger generation, particularly young women, who want to carry an attractive accessory just as much as a mobile communications device,” purred Jan Wareby, Corporate Executive, Vice President and Head of Sales and Marketing of Sony Ericsson.

    Sony Announce Four New PhonesFlipped open, the twin-display phone offers a 1.8″ 128 x 160 pixel, 65k colour, TFT main screen, supported by a 101 x 80 pixel, colour secondary display on the outside.

    The phone supports Bluetooth, music playback, SMS, e-mail, video/photo MMS and web browsing.

    In keeping with its intended audience, the Z520 can be accessorised with covers in Pale Blue, Sandy Grey, Ceramic White, Espresso Brown, Peach, Mint, Pale Yellow and Pale Pink. But no Death Metal Black.

    Sony Ericsson J210

    Last and, quite frankly, least is the J210, a no-frills, bargain basement handset, aimed at “practical phoners who value simplicity and reliability” according to Jan Wareby, Sony Ericsson’s Corporate Executive Vice President & Head of Sales and Marketing.

    The tri-band handset offers a basic set of features with a near-microscopic 600KB of user memory onboard.

    Sony Ericsson

  • Resco Photo Viewer For Pocket PC Review

    Resco Photo Viewer For Pocket PCThese days, a smartphone/PDA isn’t worth sniffing at unless it comes with a built in camera and a shedload of internal/external memory for storing mobile snaps on.

    With many devices now sporting expansion card slots capable of storing hundreds of pics, Resco is hoping that their Photo Viewer application will prove an invaluable organisational and editing tool for keen mobile snappers.

    The program – available in various flavours on the Windows Mobile, Windows Smartphone, Windows CE, Palm and Symbian operating systems – offers an easy way to browse, edit and organise photographs, set up user-defined albums, watch MPEG1 movies and slide shows and view received faxes.

    For super-sleek execs out to score swotty points, it’s even possible to run a business presentation from a Pocket PC by connecting a VGA card to a projector and running a PowerPoint presentation directly from Resco Photo Viewer.

    Installing the program on an i-mate JAM Pocket PC 2003 phone was simplicity itself, with a double click on the downloaded .exe file transferring the software to the handheld via ActiveSync.

    Resco Photo Viewer For Pocket PCWhen you install the Pocket PC program, there’s also an option to install the Resco Album Generator on your desktop PC – this program lets you create photo albums ON your desktop and then have the pictures and the album information transferred to your handheld device on the next sync.

    Before firing up the program, Photo Viewer asks which file formats it should open by default, with tick boxes offering an impressive selection of formats: MPEG1, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, MS PowerPoint (converted by Desktop Album Generator), BMP, CFX, PCX, GIF, RAB, RAW, PGM, PPM and even PSD, Photoshop’s native format.

    Once up and running, the program’s ‘home page’ presents users with the choice to open a photo album, browse a folder, browse a memory card, open the last viewed image, pull up the help files or have a rummage around the options on offer.

    When it comes to options, Resco certainly haven’t short-changed their customers, with a multitude of tabs, tick boxes and drop down menus letting users set up the application the way they like it.

    Once I’d tweaked, twiddled and fiddled the app to my heart’s desire, I was happy to find that browsing photos with the Photo Viewer was a pleasingly nippy experience, with a selection of thumbnail display options popping up on-screen in double quick time.

    Clicking on a thumbnail bought up a large preview image, while clicking again resulted in a full screen picture, automatically orientated for the screen, Very fast and very smooth. Nice.

    Resco Photo Viewer For Pocket PCIn full screen mode, the keypad can be used to scroll through picture collections manually, or users with tired fingers can set up a slide show and choose from a selection of transition fades and effects.

    It’s also possible to add sound (WAV, MP3) and text annotations to each image or set background music to a slide show.

    Usefully, the program also offers basic image editing tools, with users able to tweak brightness, contrast and gamma RGB values and resize and crop images to specified pixel sizes – great for mobile bloggers wanting to trim images down for uploading.

    For snap-happy camera-phone photographers, bloggers or folks who just like to carry around lots of photos on their mobile device, Resco Photo Viewer is an ideal product, offering fast browsing and viewing tools in a straightforward interface.

    With a comprehensive feature set wrapped up in an attractive interface, Resco Photo Viewer represents excellent value at just US$25 (~£13.70~€20.50). We like it. Highly recommended.

    (5/5)

    Resco Photo Viewer

  • OfCom Response To DCMS Green Paper on BBC Royal Charter: Comment

    OfCom Response To DCMS Green Paper on BBC Royal Charter: CommentOfcom’s press release accompanying their response to the DCMS green paper on BBC Royal charter was my first point for comment. It initially indicated to me Ofcom were sticking to:

    * An institutional model of PSB (BBC fully-funded, cornerstone of PSB, key role in digital switchover, all things to all people, etc.);

    * The much-derided PSP concept; and

    * ‘The BBC is independent’ myth (Note the irony – this statement is otherwise contained in a document related to how the government will establish the funding, governance and remit of the BBC).

    I wondered if I was being a little too hard on Ofcom. If there was original, evidence-based thinking in the document?

    Once I’d had the opportunity of read through the whole document, combined with the benefit of reflection, my views changed slightly, leading me to the following conclusions.

    1. Ofcom have produced more original thinking than I gave them credit for, initially, perhaps because the introduction and summary to the document are not as robust as its contents. Read on…

    2. That being said, Ofcom in its response still embarrassingly clings to the discredited notion that PSB must be fostered by significant and prolonged state intervention in the form of subsidy. I agree with the Financial Times on that point. Will there always be a need for a multi-billion pound state subsidy to this sector?

    3. Much of Ofcom’s thinking stems from a very questionable line of logic. Ofcom posit that PSB is in danger of becoming a BBC monopoly because the ‘implicit’ subsidy given to ITV and Channel Five is disappearing as the move to digital is underway. This line of argument is contained in Sections 2.4 through 2.11 of Ofcom’s response. I’ve never been convinced by this argument for two reasons: (i) recent empirical research by the Satellite and Cable Broadcasters Group (SCBG) demonstrated that PSB is being provided in abundance in the digital world without any subsidy and (ii) Channel 4 provides PSB and makes money. Ofcom’s statements–actually they are more like predictions–on this point have simply been unconvincing.

    4. Someone should actually listen to what the SCBG has to say. These providers don’t receive scarce spectrum, don’t have must-carry status, and don’t receive public funds. Yet SCBG say their members produce 14,000 hours of PSB programming per month—more than all the terrestrial channels combined. The SCBG say:

    [I]n the majority of programme genres that Ofcom defines as “public service broadcasting”, channels other than the BBC’s now provide most of the UK output: more than 60% of news and current affairs, more than 90% of documentaries, more than 80% of arts and music programmes. It follows that publicly funded broadcasting should now be limited to services, or to a quality of service, that the private economy cannot provide or would not provide in the absence of competing public subsidy.

    OfCom Response To DCMS Green Paper on BBC Royal Charter: CommentThis reflects the EU rules governing the use of State Aid, which require that publicly funded services such as the BBC’s must complement rather than substitute or duplicate provision by the market. Furthermore, where market developments supersede publicly funded provision, the BBC should withdraw from those services or activities and re-direct its valuable public resources to areas of activity where there is a proven market failure. While market failure should not be the only test applied to BBC services, it should provide the underpinning for all publicly funded BBC services. The absence of a market failure analysis raises significant questions as to the compatibility of the BBC’s publicly funded status with European State Aid rules.

    5. Give Ofcom some credit – if the SCBG is wrong and instead Ofcom’s thinking is correct and PSB does require massive public subsidy, at least they have it right that the public subsidy should not all go to the BBC. Ofcom also propose a responsible structure to apportion that subsidy.

    6. Give Ofcom more credit – they are keen to point out that the BBC’s role in the digital switchover process should not mean a government preference for Freeview over other digital platforms. Ofcom say the switchover should be platform neutral. Amen. Freeview stinks – I recently heard an influential observer charitably call it a ‘transitional technology’, and that’s really about the best you can say for it. Its capacity is limited; it’s not two-way; it has no worthwhile gaming applications, etc.

    7. One more area where Ofcom deserve credit – suggesting to DCMS that it consider moving the review date for PSB funding to 2010 instead of post-digital switchover. Ofcom rightly realise that this is a fast-changing area and an earlier review will serve the public interest.

    8. Finally, Ofcom say they want an ‘enhanced’ license fee for British viewers. An ‘enhanced fee’ – that can’t be a good thing, right? How much more will that cost us?

    Russ Taylor is a co-founder of ofcomwatch.

    Review of the BBC’s Royal Charter – Ofcom response to the Green Paper
    Ofcom publishes response to Government Green Paper on BBC Royal Charter Press Release
    BBC Charter Review

  • Freeview Breaks 5m Barrier. UK Digital TV Now ~62%

    Freeview Breaks 5m Barrier. UK Digital TV Now ~62%Ofcom has today reported its quarterly figures on the rate of take-up of digital TV in the UK.

    The number of homes that are connected to a digital TV service through some means has increased 2.5% to just short of 62% (61.9%). No big surprise there as this has been gradually increasing over the previous quarters.

    The bigger news, we feel, is Freeview, the UK’s Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) service reaching 5,059,350 homes – breaking the significant barrier of five million homes.

    Freeview Breaks 5m Barrier. UK Digital TV Now ~62%This is bad news for Sky, as it’s starting to get close to the around 7.5m homes that they have. What’s worse news for them is in the detail of the report. Sky’s all-important ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) has dropped from £386 in Q4 2004 to £382 in Q1 2005. This might not sound huge, but for an organisation that is trying to constantly increase their ARPU, it’s not encouraging. Another figure of note is their rate of churn, that’s up to 11.1% form 9.6% in the previous quarter.

    Xmas has previously been a strong time for Sky as people with little imagination and less conversation buy in Sky to keep them happy over the Turkey dinner.

    Freeview Breaks 5m Barrier. UK Digital TV Now ~62%The growth of aerial-delivered Freeview has been gaining more momentum of late, still spearheaded by the BBC using the Freeview channels to first-show a lot of its content.

    For the fact spotters, a minor point of interest is the number of old ITV Digital STB’s that are in use in the UK. This is in steadily decline since they went bust and is now running at 290,000, down 60,000 from 350,000 in the previous quarter.

    I actually run one of these and have increasingly found problems with it as the ‘digital rust’ sets in – box freezes, etc. (I’m not looking for sympathy. The problems with the box are significantly offset by the fact that I paid the princely sum of 1p for it, timing its purchase, as I did, during the week of uncertainly before ITV Digital went bust).

    Freeview Breaks 5m Barrier. UK Digital TV Now ~62%The breakdown of the figures is as follows

    Sky Subscribers – 7,349,000 Freeview & free satellite – 5,504,350 Digital cable – ~2,500,00

    Ofcom Digital Television Update – Q1 2005

  • Gorillaz Launch ‘Next Generation’ Enhanced Video

    Gorillaz Launch 'Next Generation' Enhanced VideoAnimated UK act, Gorillaz, are proudly claiming a world first for their ‘next generation’ enhanced video for ‘Feel Good Inc.’

    Using new “template technology” brewed up by MTV and its partner Ensequence, the video for ‘Feel Good Inc’ utilises the technology’s modular capabilities which – apparently – allow “more in-depth, bespoke, multi-layered content to be added behind the red button.”

    After consulting our buzzword translator, we’ve worked out that their next-gen video will allow viewers to call up more interactive content, including track info, competitions and artist biogs, as well as each band member’s audio commentary on the video.

    “The new Gorillaz video takes the extended relationship interactivity offers and takes it a step further, giving fans a much richer experience, “offered Lisa Gower, Digital Media Manager at Parlophone.

    “The new technology allows fans to get closer to their favourite artists and brings interactive content closer to the quality and choice found with the ‘extras’ on DVDs,” she added.

    Gorillaz Launch 'Next Generation' Enhanced VideoBundling in a host of interactive freebies is clearly being seen as a useful marketing tool for record companies, keen to discover new ways to part loyal fans with their cash.

    Matthew Kershaw, Head of Interactive, MTV Networks UK & Ireland, explains, “Offering greater flexibility, we now have the creative freedom to create bespoke interactive layers that complement each video and can be different depending on when the viewer accesses them, giving fans a far richer and more enhanced experience than they have had before”.

    Elsewhere, the Gorillaz have confirmed details for an innovative virtual US tour, with unique performances being streamed via the Web sites of radio stations across the country.

    The Demon Detour virtual tour starts on June 6 at KNDD Seattle’s 1077theend.com and will go on to ‘visit’ the sites of 39 US radio stations and include two national broadcasts.

    Gorillaz Launch 'Next Generation' Enhanced VideoThe band – brainchild of Blur’s Damon Albarn (aka 2D) and Tank Girl” creator Jamie Hewlett (aka Murdoc) – are already celebrating the US success of their second album, “Demon Days,” which has debuted at No. 6 on The Billboard 200.

    “It’s not enough that we’ve just recorded and released the defining album of the century, now we’ve gotta go tell the world about it,” quipped. “We’re gonna play some live songs, maybe talk a little about the album, crack some jokes.”

    Gorillaz
    Ensequence

  • People Prefer Real Live Customer Service

    People Prefer Real Live Customer ServiceIt’s hardly revelatory stuff, but a study by J.D. Power and Associates has revealed that customer service issues dealt with by living, breathing human beings create significantly higher customer care ratings than those with computer-generated interaction.

    The 2005 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study, now in its third year, examines customer experiences in three point-of-contact methods: on the blower with a service representative and/or automated response system (ARS); walk-in at a retail store; and online Internet connection.

    The men in the white lab coats examined processing issues such as problem resolution efficiency and the time customers were left listening to cheesy on-hold music and drew up a customer satisfaction index.

    Customers dealing with service representatives over the phone registered an average index score of 109, well above the industry average score of 100.

    At the retail store, things weren’t quite so positive, but still returned an above-average score of 102.

    However, when it came to customers contacting their carrier with a problem and being left to deal with a gibbering box of wires in an ARS system, the index score plummeted down to 85.

    Trying to get an answer online proved to be even more frustrating, with the index score plunging down to just 75.

    The study reveals that customers didn’t like the inflexibility of automated systems, noting that a service representative-either over the phone or in person-can answer customer questions and clarify answers given.

    Not surprisingly, this compares favourably to spending an eternity on the phone being told to endlessly bash different numbers on a keypad.

    People Prefer Real Live Customer Service“As more companies encourage customers to contact Internet and computer-based customer service programs to save operating costs, they run the risk of increasing churn [techie word for a customer switching carriers] as the number of contacts needed to resolve a customer complaint or issue rises,” said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates.

    “Since future churn levels are four times as high among those who rate their wireless carrier below average in customer care, the challenge for wireless providers is to offer an easy and efficient customer care transaction experience.”

    Contrary to my personal experience, T-Mobile US ranked highest among the six big-boy wireless service providers in “creating a positive experience among customers who contact their providers for service or assistance.”

    Victorious for the second consecutive year, T-Mobile notched up an index score of 108, and was seen as performing particularly well across all factors, especially hold-time duration and problem resolution efficiency.

    Additionally, T-Mobile customers’ average hold times before waiting to speak with a service representative were an impressive 34 percent less than the industry average (2.27 minutes versus 3.44 minutes).

    Verizon Wireless, Nextel and ALLTEL were also noted as performing at or above the industry average.

    The study also found that more 54% of wireless users have contacted the customer service department for assistance within the past year – up slightly from last year’s 52%.

    Most customers prefer to contact their carriers via the telephone (71%), with 26% using email and only 3% using e-mail/Internet contacts.

    The 2005 Wireless Customer Care Performance Study was based on responses from more than 8,600 wireless users who had contacted customer care over the past year.

    JD Power

  • SGH-Z130: Samsung ‘Web friendly’ 3G Handset Imminent

    Samsung's SGH=Z130 3G Handset On The WayScheduled for release at the beginning of July is Samsung’s “Web friendly” SGH-Z130 3G handset.

    The all-swivelling beastie features a rotating, high-resolution LCD screen (176×220 pixels), with full Web browsing support offered by the well regarded NetFront Browser by Access (as previously seen on Sony Clie PDAs).

    As is the norm these days, a 1.3-Megapixel (1152 x 864 pixels) digital camera has been poured inside the SGH-Z130’s slim-ish dimensions (112x46x20mm, 120g), with all the multimedia tick boxes neatly crossed off:

    Video recorder? Oh yes!
    Music player with MP3/AAC/AAC+ support? Of course!
    All jingling, jangling and beeping 64 polyphonic & MP3 ring tones installed? Absolutely!
    Embedded wallpapers and Macromedia Flash? C’est naturellement!

    Samsung's SGH-Z130 3G Handset On the WayThere’s a fair bit of memory on board to handle all the multimedia fluff, with a total of 88.5 MB storage offering 80 MB for Image/Sound/Video, 4 MB for Java, 3 MB for Email and 1.5 MB for MMS with just enough room left over for 200 SMS messages.

    The handset comes with built-in Bluetooth support (v1.1) and works with 2100MHz UMTS 3G as well as the 900/1800MHz GSM bands.

    Sadly, despite the phone’s strong Web-focus, there’s no Wi-Fi on board and USB connectivity is stuck at Ye Olde v1.0.

    The built in NetFront browser supports OMA Browsing 2.2, WML, HTML 4.01 and cHTML, and its “Rapid-Render” incremental rendering technology is claimed to accelerate the presentation of Web pages.

    Samsung's SGH-Z130 3G Handset On The WayAs with earlier versions of Netfront, there is a handy option to render Web pages to fit smaller screen widths, saving a ton of pesky horizontal scrolling.

    NetFront is being touted as the only mobile browser to provide integrated support for Adobe Reader LE and the popular portable document format, PDF.

    ‘The SGH-Z130 is one of the most innovative 3G handsets on the market today, and ACCESS’ advanced NetFront browser technology extends this innovation by providing a comprehensive mobile Internet browsing experience,’ insisted Chulhwan Lee, of Samsung. ‘ACCESS and Samsung will continue to collaborate to bring advanced mobile Internet browsing solutions to mobile end-users throughout the world.’

    SGH-Z130 specs

  • GNER Publishes Passwords In Customer Magazine

    GNER Publishes Passwords In Customer Magazine Hot on the heels of yesterday’s story about the ‘world’s greatest military hacker’ comes this tale of advanced doltery from train operator Great North Eastern Railway (GNER), who managed to publish their system passwords in a magazine available to thousands of passengers.

    The April/May edition of their freebie passenger magazine, Livewire, positively invited hackers to come and do their devilish work, with an article on their operator’s control centre in York being illustrated with photographs showing mainframe and computer passwords written on a whiteboard.

    Red faced and flapping like Fred McFlapster wearing flares in a gale force wind, William Higgins, editor of Livewire, surprised us all by declaring that including the picture was a mistake, insisting that the highly competent GNER technology team had already rectified any problems.

    Martin Grey, technical services manager in GNER’s information systems department, claimed that passwords were changed before the magazine was published, ‘We quickly changed the passwords and user accounts so no one outside could get into our corporate data.’

    ‘The procedure in terms of our internal security was not being followed and we took quick steps to remedy that,’ he added.

    A GNER spokesman later confirmed passwords were no longer being written bold and large on whiteboards and – presumably – their photographers will no longer be invited to go around snapping confidential information for free magazines.

    GNER Publishes Passwords In Customer MagazineGNER, owned by the Sea Containers Group, provide high-speed intercity train services along Britain’s East Coast main line, linking England and Scotland along a route of almost 1,000 miles.

    Of their annual 15 million passengers every year, eight million are calculated to be business travellers, with the free magazine enjoying a circulation of more than 100,000.

    A deeply unimpressed Phil Robinson, chief technology officer at security specialist Information Risk Management, commented that it was unusual to see passwords emblazoned on whiteboards, although it’s commonplace to see office monitors flapping with Post-it notes containing security information.

    ‘Mainframes are a sensitive part of any organisation and contain the crown jewels of data a business might want to protect,’ he warned.

    Robinson suggested that companies need to work out a coherent security password policy and insist that employees use secure – but memorable – passwords, with a lock-out policy stopping repeated wrong password entries.

    Microsoft’s ‘At Work’ site offers a series of tips for creating passwords, advising against using combinations of consecutive numbers or letters or adjacent letters on a keyboard such as “qwerty.”

    The site also recommends avoiding any word that can be found in the dictionary, in any language, or replacing letters with numbers or symbols that look like the letters such as M1cr0$0ft or P@ssw0rd as hackers are wise to these tricks.

    Instead, Microsoft advises coming up with a passphrase – a sentence you can remember, like “My son Aiden is three years older than my daughter Anna” – and then using the first letter of each word of the sentence to create ‘msaityotmda.’

    It then advises mixing and matching a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters that look like letters to come up with a hacker-challenging password like M$8ni3y0tmd@.

    (Your writer now hastily goes off to change his own passwords…)

    GNER
    Creating stronger passwords

  • Europe’s Broadband Access Overtakes America’s

    Europe's Broadband Access Overtakes AmericasA new survey published today reveals that more Europeans than Americans possessed a broadband Internet connection in the first quarter of 2005, with hi-tech South Korea in danger of losing its global pole position.

    The Asia Pacific region – home to most of the world’s population – continues to be the world’s biggest broadband market, notching up 61 million subscribers and a 39 percent share of the global broadband market.

    The research by the Anglo-Dutch research group TelecomPaper placed Europe in second place with 47.95 million broadband subscribers, edging past America with 47.53 million.

    “Europe has outrun the Americas for the first time in history and became the second largest broadband market in the world,” TelecomPaper noted.

    The addition of broadband to European homes was also greater than Asia and America, growing around twice as fast.

    Europe's Broadband Access Overtakes AmericasLeading the European charge were countries such as the Netherlands and Denmark whose broadband connectivity now only trails South Korea by a smidgen.

    South Korea currently boasts 23.92 broadband connections per 100 inhabitants, which is calculated to give over 50 percent of the population fast internet access when connection-sharing is taken into account.

    Growth in South Korea has almost come to standstill, with new connections only up 1.45 percent from the same period last year.

    In the Netherlands and Denmark growth was explosive, with penetration reaching 21.1 percent, up from 13.9 and 15.8 percent respectively.

    Europe's Broadband Access Overtakes Americas“Given the slow growth of South Korea, we expect that the top position, now held by South Korea, will change hands this year,” observed TelecomPaper director Ed Achterberg.

    With virtual telecoms operators gaining access to the incumbent operator’s networks via European unbundling regulations, consumers have been able to take advantage from the fierce competition among telecoms’ operators and cable TV companies.

    European telecommunications commissioner Viviane Reding stated that she wanted more than half of all Europeans to have high-speed Internet access by 2010, bringing it up from an average 8.5 percent in 2004.

    Five out the world’s top 10 broadband nations are European, with Hong Kong at number four and Canada at five. Switzerland, Israel, Taiwan, Norway and Sweden are all up in the top ten, boasting at least 16.9 percent fast Internet connections per 100 citizens.

    TelecomPaper

  • Islington’s Free Wi-Fi ‘Technology Mile’ Goes Live

    Islington's Free Wi-Fi Technology Mile Goes LiveWi-fi enabled North Londoners can now gorge their connectivity needs with the announcement by Islington Council that its ‘Technology Mile’ has gone live.

    Located in Upper Street, Islington, the ‘Technology Mile’ runs from The Angel to Highbury Corner, providing one mile of unbroken free wireless broadband access to residents, businesses and any passing freeloader.

    The service will be available to anyone with a suitably enabled Wi-Fi device, with surfers being directed to a customised council page featuring a comprehensive menu of council services, information and communication options including jobs, travel, e-Govt options, child care and advice services

    Happily, there’s also direct access to the World Wide Web – all for nowt.

    The second part of the project is to dish out computers to businesses in the area, so that customers can use these for free access.

    Islington's Free Wi-fi Technology Mile Goes LiveThe council are anticipating that locals may use the free access to pay off council bills and are hopeful that the service may stimulate commercial activity in the area.

    “As London’s largest ‘hotzone’ Islington’s Technology Mile is a landmark in providing wide reaching community services directly on the street,” says Cllr Bridget Fox. “By offering free access to important council services and to the internet, the project addresses social inclusion head on and supports our ambition to turn Islington into an A1 Borough for all.

    “The technology mile builds on other schemes the council has in place to help everyone to gain the benefits of internet access. I’m especially pleased with the second phase of the project, when we hope to begin work with selected local businesses, supplying PCs along Upper St business so they can offer free access to their customers.”

    We like this scheme. There’s not much point in having free community Wi-Fi if only well-heeled laptop-toters can use it, but by ensuring public access to computers in the area, the walls of the digital divide could come crashing down.

    The scheme comes with a few commercial risks – if the service proves to be fast and reliable, locals may cancel their commercial subscriptions and this may result in ISPs fighting back – in America, several commercial providers have already managed to get legislation passed to prevent free or low-cost municipal broadband services arguing that they’re uncompetitive.

    Marc Meyohas, Chief Executive of Cityspace, the company who built the network gave out his love for the borough: “Islington is a progressive council with great vision; the Technology Mile proves what can be achieved for the community by taking the internet out of the restrictive arenas of homes and offices and truly integrating it into people’s lives.”

    Islington Council
    Cityspace