Google may join in with UK internet providers
September 28, 2007 at 11:07 am
Will the earth itself actually end up being bought by Google? There seems to be no end to the power and ambition the Californian-based company has. Earlier in the year they bought the pioneering video sharing website YouTube for a reasonable $1.65 billion. In April 2007 they purchased the huge internet advertising service DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. Furthermore, their satellite Maps are used the world over for surveillance, the search engine is the most visited website in the world, and the company is planning on capitalising on its profile here.
The UK regulator Ofcom have announced this week that they are planning to auction off a share of the wireless mobile phone ownership currently in use in the UK by O2 and Vodafone, who make up a third of the market-share. According to a recent article in The Guardian, Google are planning to enter the auction. Clues as to their intentions can possibly be seen in their weighing up a bid of up to £2.3 billion for the same business in the US.
The way the system works here in the UK has been the same for some time now. The 3G spectrum, which is the platform the mobile phone wireless internet works on, is shared by the five main mobile phone networks: O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3. However, Ofcom will allow a third of that market to come under the hammer, forcing O2 and Vodafone out of the race that they have been in for over 22 years.
Google will be keen to join this race, particularly because they already have plans in place to enter the mobile phone world with rumoured services called the GPhone and contracts called GPay. One of the biggest weapons in their arsenal is the fact that, unlike the five main phone networks over here, Google won’t have to charge for the usage of the wireless internet browsing. The reason for this is because they already make so much money from the internet through sponsored links and advertising on their search engines.
Vodafone are less nervy about the possible Atlantic-invasion, as they have partnered with Orange to guarantee they are still around when the new wireless spectrum is launched in 2010. T-Mobile and 3 are rumoured to be doing the same. Poor old O2, however, might be left out in the cold though, with only their recent exclusive iPhone deal – which doesn’t even have 3G technology here in the UK – to keep them warm. Google is on its way to Blighty and there is little we can do to stop it.
BT to employ psychologists to get people to sign up to broadband
September 24, 2007 at 11:08 am
It’s difficult for some of us to imagine a world without the use of the internet on a daily basis. Communication, social networking, banking and business are merely a small number of activities people depend on the internet for. However, recent research from regulator Ofcom has revealed that 39% of people in the UK still have no internet connection in their homes, and many people are still totally in the dark with knowledge and experience of the web.
Instead of trying to tempt new customers with lavish offers, BT have decided to employ a group of psychologists to lead research into discovering the reasons why so many people in the UK are still somewhat fearful of using the internet.
The scheme, known as Crossing the Divide, will delve into the main causes for scepticism. Many people claim to be scared of using the internet, as opposed to being put off for other reasons such as logistical or financial. The research already carried out by BT compares people’s mindsets towards the internet with that of a bungee jump. BT plan to make it much less of a height and to guide people down slowly and with confidence.
The principle psychologist in the research, Dr David Lewis, says, “More often the barriers are internal, stemming from a fear of the technology.” The research will use a sort of guinea pig method, whereby a small number of people who have never used the internet before and have been fearful will be asked to help with the research. They will be given laptops with webcams, digital cameras and of course a broadband connection. They will be tutored by technicians for a couple of months and guided through the learning process, all the time being recording and monitored by Dr Lewis and his team, who hope to identify where the industry can improve.
BT will display the progress of the trials on their Journey to Inclusion website. Spokesman for BT, Gavin Patterson, said, “The gap between the competent internet user and those who have never been online has never been greater.” This research intends to shorten that gap for everyone.
Asia way ahead of Europe with broadband mobiles
September 21, 2007 at 2:37 am
In the UK we are all pulling our hair out at the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who fail to provide us with what we’re paying for, let alone making it arrive at high-speeds. On the other side of the world, however, it’s a completely different kettle of fish and the rules for internet connection and its speeds over there don’t stop at the office and the home but apply to new equipment and services for use on mobile phones.
High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a third generation (3G) system that is fitted into a few current mobile phone handsets (such as LG and Samsung) and allows for internet speeds of up to 7.2 Mbits/s for downloading, which is at least twice as quick as previous mobile phone systems. It also provides up to 30G of data a month. The average ISP in the UK offers their broadband customers speeds of around 2 or 4 Mbits/s for use at home (though most people seldom actually get this speed) but with HSDPA this will soon seem ridiculous. The system is currently causing a storm across Asia and particularly in South Korea, where people are benefiting from these high-speeds wherever they are.
Such advances are not a new thing in Korea and nearby Japan either. For some time now over 14% of all mobile phone handsets in Korea have Digital Mobile Broadcast television and over half of all phones have high-pixel quality cameras.
Furthermore, South Korea’s capital Seoul is already planning to be the first city in the world to fully cover the area with a wireless broadband accessibility (known as Wibro), not simply for use with laptops but also with mobile phones. It is argued in reply that the city’s very dense population makes communication easier. However, mobile phones with 10 megapixel cameras, 8 GB hard drives, 100 MB stream of data at 60kph and now this high-speed HSDPA broadband are all examples of just why this region is so far ahead in this field.
As Executive Vice President of Global Marketing Operations at Samsung Electronics, Eric Kim, said “The vision of a broadband society is already here in Korea. We are two or three years ahead in wireless broadband and people are using it too”.
The HSDPA high-speed service will no doubt reach Europe eventually but, by the time it does, might Korea already be enjoying the stuff of our science-fiction films by then?
Broadband cable running through a sewer
September 12, 2007 at 10:47 am
When students at the University of Aberdeen return to college in autumn 2007 after their summer break, they might find their broadband connection is coming from a rather unexpected source.
Over the summer holidays, the university has been running a series of fibre cables from one area of the campus to the student village and accommodation area through the underground sewer networks that are already in place and in use. The university previously used a microwave link but as the Head in Infrastructure Dr Brian Robertson stated: “The microwave connection is relatively low bandwidth and one of the issues is the trees keep growing and are in the line of sight. We needed a hard-wire connection.”
The sewer system claims to be 80% faster than the existing methods and has been developed by H20 Networks, whose slogan is humorously Using the past to connect the future. It has access to over 360,000 miles of tunnelling networks across the UK. It uses the old but very reliable Victorian sewer systems and claims to reduce road digging by up to 80%. In the next year, H2O Networks are aiming to lay over 200km of dark fibre links or networks within the UK.
In remote areas of Scotland, Scottish Water have also taken to the idea and are beginning work on laying cables in sewers in August 2007 at a business park in Rosyth in Fife. It is also hoped that the other 24,000 miles of sewage tunnels will be utilised presently. The Commercial Director of Scottish Water Chris Banks commented, “We are not attempting to become communications experts but, for the first time, we are playing landlord to the real communication experts and allowing our sewer network to play host to a new communications infrastructure”.
BT are the principle competitors in this area and already around the Docklands area in London Thames Water and the Lattice Group have begun laying new cables in the sewers with further plans for central and west London.
Sewer cabling systems for broadband are not a new thing for the rest of Europe. There are currently two large operators leading the charge in Paris, using the city’s sewage systems in the hopes of making the French capital a standard bearer for communications in major cities across the world. With the system already in place, in Paris as well as many other parts of Europe since the dawn of the millennium, it seems only fitting that the UK catches up sooner rather than later.
