A lobby of technology companies in the US, TechNet are ramping up their campaign to make BB ubiquitous.
Oftel push BT to unbundle
It appears that the UK telco regulator, Oftel is actually starting to take some actions to ‘encourage’ the roll-out of BB in the UK by forcing BT to lower some of it’s LLU (Local Loop Unbundling) related charges. I’m not clear if the two reductions mentioned will have any meaningful impact of end-user pricing but I am sure the reduction in connection and rental charges would, sadly Oftel will not take any action on this until a ‘separate analysis of competition in the relevant market’ has been conducted.
AOL-TW increase non-AOL access to content
AOL-TW are to increase their monthly access fee to their content through non-AOL provided broadband connectivity by 50%. I imagine there are two reasons for this, 1) it’s a good lever to get people to change to AOL as their BB providers and 2) shifting BB content over a network that you don’t own end-to-end is expensive.
Rich-media online education starts in Plano, Texas
A trial is just starting in Plano, Texas, USA to provide students access to rich-media educational material after normal school hours via DSL called MyPISD.net (PISD – Plano Independent Schools Districts). The initial trial includes one of each school level, Elementary, Middle and High School. The hitch which is touched upon is the fact the parents of the students need to provide the extra $50 extra dollars a month for access to the system.
Pace announce sub-£100 digital TV adaptor
UK company Pace today announced a sub-£100 digital TV adaptor, that enables and analogue TV to receive digital broadcasts.
Microsoft denied the Xbox is entertainment gateway
Initially Microsoft denied that the Xbox would be an entertainment gateway, fearing that would raise paranoia in potential purchasers. It was clear to everyone that this was of course nonsense. Xbox 2 or HomeStation as it cheekily rumoured to be called will apparently not be disguised as ‘just’ a games machine.
No money from UK Gov for broadband
Douglas Alexander the UK ‘ecommerce’ minister has stated that Broadband is ‘private sector’ affair. From this it’s quite clear that the government delegation that went to Korea recently didn’t learn a great deal, especially not when it comes to putting their hand in their pocket. Let’s hope this isn’t the start of a withdrawal for support for broadband, after they recent actions had looks so promising …
BT launches self installation ADSL
Potential for Australian pay-TV DSL service
Australian cable company Optus are floating the idea of running pay-TV via DSL after their successful trial.
iMac webcast a big success
The launch of the iMac reportedly brought very large numbers of viewer to its Webcast. Of course it’s a totally ideal audience, keen computer users who are passionate about their product being shown the newest toy by their demigod. Obviously there’s no discussion of cost of the event, 11 Terabytes is a lot of data/cash – and the fact that Apple are investors in Akamai must have helped. With actual figures of the bits shipped given this time rather than the vague ten million viewers given for the fabled Madonna concert, it’s far more believable. It’s a commonly held belief in the streaming industry that the Madonna 10m figure given was totally fictitious.