Tiscali have been offering a wireless option to their broadband and TV packages now for about a year, allowing customers greater freedom at home when connecting to the internet. I’ve many enquiries and questions about wireless which leads me to believe a lot of people out there are confused about wireless broadband. Let’s try and [...]
When you’re buying a laptop, it can be difficult to know what to look for. Most people have bought a desktop system before, but the number of first-time laptop owners is growing every year, and the configuration of laptops is different in many notable ways.
In laptops, one of the most vital things to look for [...]
These are the extensions through one can easily get in touch to his colleagues present anywhere on earth. These help in connecting several users at a time. As soon as the servers gets connected, one can bring into use the concept of IP telephony wherein the user gets in touch with whomsoever he wants to [...]
Wireless networks are being used by companies and basic consumers every day. Now, what do you need to setup a wireless network? We will assume we have two computers without any wireless equipment.
Now, in order to setup a wireless network you need the following:
· broadband internet (dial up will not work!) or ADSL internet
· one [...]
Seemingly, every other day or so there is a new broadband service that has somehow taken root during the night. Of course, with every new service come the predictable spate of new offers and the plethora of reasons given for why customers should flock to their service as opposed to pre-existing services. However, no matter [...]
The telecoms industry, not the government, will need to stump up the billions of pounds needed to introduce the next generation of super-fast broadband networks, according to the former boss of Cable & Wireless who was appointed by the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform and the Treasury to look at the British broadband market.
But Francesco Caio said the government could help reduce the estimated £5.1bn to £28.8bn cost of installing super-fast broadband by coordinating the digging up of streets so that fibre optic lines can be installed, opening up national infrastructure such as sewers so cables can be installed and relaxing the rules on where overhead wires can be erected.
His recommendations, which the government has accepted, come ahead of the publication of Ofcom’s initial thoughts on next-generation broadband networks - which will allow consumers to download songs in seconds and movies in minutes - this month.
The regulator is expected to re-open its consultation with the industry by asking what sort of regulatory regime is required to ensure next-generation networks are built over the coming decade. Caio said there had yet to emerge a service that cannot be delivered over current broadband networks. But as more and more devices are produced that can access the internet, the need to install networks that can run at much faster speeds would increase. The government needed to keep a watchful eye to ensure investment was made but did not need to bankroll broadband.
“In my view the case for major intervention now is weak at best,” he said. “It is true that the UK has a lower number of homes connected through fibre than other countries, but I think we should take a rather more articulate view of how broadband is used, what there is today and how the system is evolving, as opposed to just counting the number of fibres there are in the ground.”
He said next-generation networks would be a mixture of fibre-optic cabling and wireless broadband. BT, which welcomed the review, has already said it plans to spend £1.5bn running fibre-optic cabling to the street-side cabinets that ultimately connect 40% - 10m - of homes.
This week the government’s independent advisory panel, the Broadband Stakeholder Group, estimated that linking such fibre-optic cabling to all Britain’s cabinets would cost £5.1bn, while laying cable all the way into every home would cost £28.8bn.
Virgin Media is already introducing broadband at up to 50Mb per second - 10 times faster than the average connection - across its cable network, which covers half the UK. Caio said such moves proved competition, not intervention, was the way to go.
The market was changing so fast - wireless networks today can offer faster broadband speeds than were possible over a fixed-line connection 10 years ago - that the government should keep an open mind on what technology is used.
“My recommendation to the government is don’t commit to anything today because the technology is changing,” he said. “You might find yourself having committed a lot for something that could have been done by the market.”
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The telecoms industry, not the government, will need to stump up the billions of pounds needed to rollout the next generation of super-fast broadband networks across the UK, according to the former boss of Cable & Wireless, who was appointed earlier this year by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and the Treasury to look at the UK broadband market.
But Francesco Caio said the government can help reduce the estimated £5.1bn to £28.8bn cost of installing super-fast broadband, by coordinating the digging up of streets so that fibre optic lines can be installed, opening up national infrastructure such as sewers so cables can be laid and relaxing the rules on where overhead wires can be erected.
His recommendations, which the government welcomed, come ahead of the publication of regulator Ofcom’s initial thoughts on next generation broadband networks - which will allow consumers to download songs in seconds and movies in minutes - later this month. The regulator is expected to re-open its consultation with the industry by asking what sort of regulatory regime is required to ensure next generation networks are built over the coming decade.
Caio said there has yet to emerge a service that cannot be delivered over current broadband networks but as more and more devices are produced that can access the internet, the need to install networks that can run at much faster speeds will increase. The government needs to keep a watchful eye to ensure investment is made, but does not need to bankroll broadband.
“In my view the case for major intervention now is weak at best,” he said. “It is true that the UK has a lower number of homes connected through fibre (optic cables) than other countries, but I think we should take a rather more articulate view of how broadband is used, what there is today and how the system is evolving, as opposed to just counting the number of fibres there are in the ground.”
He said next generation networks will be a mixture of fibre-optic cabling, either to individual homes or street-side cabinets, and wireless broadband. BT, which welcomed the review, has already said it plans to spend £1.5bn running fibre optic cabling to the streetside cabinets that ultimately connect 40% - 10 million - of the UK’s homes.
Earlier this week, the government’s own independent advisory panel, the Broadband Stakeholders Group, estimated that rolling out such fibre optic cabling to all the UK’s cabinets would cost £5.1bn, while putting cabling all the way into every home in the UK would cost £28.8bn.
Virgin Media, meanwhile, is already rolling out broadband at up to 50Mb per second - 10 times faster than the average connection - across its cable network which covers half the UK.
Caio said such moves prove that competition, not intervention, is the way to go. The market is also changing so fast - wireless networks today can offer faster broadband speeds than were possible over a fixed-line connection a decade ago - that the government should keep an open mind on what technology gets used.
“My recommendation to the government is don’t commit to anything today because the technology is changing,” he said. “You might find yourself having committed a lot for something that could have been done by the market”.
As a result he said the government should not look to extend the universal service obligation, under which BT must to provide a basic phone line to every UK household, into the provision of fibre optic cabling.
He gave the current state of the broadband market - which covers 99.6% of UK households - a relatively clean bill of health. But he added that current ‘bottlenecks’ in the system, which reduce the speed of internet access, are appearing in the telecom companies’ backbone networks rather than in the ‘last mile’ connection between telephone exchanges and people’s homes, which is where next generation networks will be installed.
As a result he wants Ofcom to demand that the ISPs give their customers more detail of how they manage their internet traffic, especially at peak times. The regulator has already pushed for a voluntary industry code which gives customers more information about the average speed they can expect on their line. But Caio believes some customers may be willing to pay more in order to have dedicated bandwidth, once they fully understand how their line is managed, so they do not see their speed dip at any time of day.
Caio’s recommendation that telecoms companies be able to carpet the countryside with overhead cables is likely to alarm some rural communities. But Shriti Vadera, parliamentary under secretary of state for business and competitiveness, said local communities will have to weigh up the benefits of super-fast broadband against the impact of overhead cabling. “It is a matter of ensuring that people have a say,” she added.
Business secretary John Hutton added: “We want to create the right conditions for private sector investment and stand ready to play our part in ensuring the UK has a competitive infrastructure in the years to come.”
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Integrated home systems may include all or any of the following:-
Video sources to various rooms using display equipment from TFT, Plasma, Projection and PC connectivity.
Audio distribution of CD based music, digital radio, digital TV broadcasts from terrestrial and satellite broadcasters, cable and increasingly over the internet.
Data connections for the use of home networked computers access [...]
While those who like to claim that the US broadband market is more competitive than it really is like to point to the rise of 3G wireless networks as proof, they almost always ignore the fact that those 3G networks come with insanely restrictive terms of service, that allow the providers to cut users off for almost any activity outside of email or web browsing. For example, using such a service for video and music has been prohibited in some terms of service. Sprint was the most open with their 3G wireless until recently.
Now AT&T is admitting that if it discovers users of its wireless broadband 3G service are making use of P2P apps, it will cut them off completely, and claims that it makes this clear in the terms of service. It hasn’t happened yet, but this bit of data will supposedly be used by a dissenting FCC commissioner this week to show that Comcast’s traffic shaping is pretty tame compared to other “rules” out there on network usage (ignoring the very different nature of the networks in question, of course).
This raises a number of questions: If AT&T’s biggest concern about P2P file sharing apps is clogging its 3G wireless network, why does it allow streaming apps to run on the iPhone? For example, one of the most popular apps on the iPhone is Pandora, whose customized streaming radio offering is super popular (and appears to work quite well). So is AT&T going to cut off users of one of the most popular apps on the iPhone? And how will AT&T respond when someone (inevitably, if they haven’t already done so) develops an iPhone app for P2P file sharing as well? This really just seems like AT&T slipping an excuse into the terms of service to cut off anyone they don’t like — but in the long run it may backfire as people get pissed off at AT&T for limiting what new devices like the iPhone can do.
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Turns out that Canadian patent holders love East Texas just as much as American companies. The news today covers how Canadian wireless patent holder Wi-LAN has now sued RIM in East Texas, concerning patents on mobile handheld devices. RIM is also a Canadian company (and also heavily involved in patent disputes). Isn’t it great to see two Canadian firms choosing East Texas as the best place to fight over patents?
Wi-LAN is a company that we’ve discussed in the past. It worked on some technologies for wireless networks, but was unable to successfully market products commercially. In other words, it failed in the market. So, instead, it started focusing on aggressively enforcing its patent portfolio, suing a ton of companies who did anything wirelessly. As with so many public companies that turn into patent hoarders these days, it also has a very vocal and active set of day traders who will defend it to no end (see the comments on that link above).
RIM, of course, is also a well known company that we’ve written about many times. The maker of the super popular Blackberry wireless device, it became an aggressive filer of patent infringement lawsuits. That, in turn, led some patent holders from a non-practicing entity called NTP to sue RIM over some other patents — eventually leading to a $612.5 million payout by RIM (despite the fact that NTP’s patents were found to be invalid).
This latest case seems like it ties together so many different stories. You’ve got a failed business trying to use its patents to hold back the company that won; it’s got Wi-LAN who has been aggressively trying to tax just about every wireless innovation with its patents; it’s got RIM, who has been on both sides of a ton of questionable patent lawsuits; and it all takes place in East Texas. Who could ask for anything more?
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