Convergence Conversation

It has been widely reported today that Ofcom have released the results of tests conducted by SamKnows into the discrepancy between the marketing led "up to" figures by which our broadband is sold and the actual throughput that is delivered.

One such article: http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=194932&site=lr_cable&f_src=lrdailynewsletter

Congratulations to SamKnows for producing the empirical evidence to highlight a problem that many of us have known has existed for some time.

Now, Ofcom... you've highlighted the issue... what do you intend to do about it? Your remit as regulator of this industry is to ensure that we, the consumer, are not misled by false advertising. More...

I attended an Intellect run meeting, on behalf of BIS, this week to discuss the 2MBit/s Universal Service Commitment or USC. At least I had thought that was what the meeting was for - actually it was a "Concept Viability Workshop" to discuss the options to deliver on the USC in certain fabricated scenarios where it was perceived by the organisers that service may not currently be available.

The key issue we faced, however, was that the organisers of the meeting were unwilling to define the USC for us. Indeed we were openly told that the definition of the USC would not be considered. Therefore we were left to discuss how to deliver something we couldn't define which took less time than they had expected!

We did push back quite a bit on this and I heard two statements about the USC that could combine to form a definition: More...

Sorry, really shouldn't do that do the English language.

Another great post on the 5tth blog here

To paraphrase, if we collaborate we can revolutionise. That's what the Colloquium is all about and that is why you should come.

I hope to see you there.

If you have any interest in progressing the poor state of our rural broadband then you should consider attending this upcoming colloquium: http://www.webpr.co.uk/digitaldales/colloquium/

It is organised by people with a huge amount of experience in the issues associated with rural broadband and sponsored by groups who can provide great insight into how it can be delivered and what potential it can bring to your community.

You can register to attend at the above link - it will be a highly worthwhile event which could make the biggest difference to your community in recent years.

Please pass on the word if you know of others who may be interested. More...

Just an update- no more rants for today!

A couple of weeks ago BT announced some more locations for the FTTC rollout, said to be available towards the end of 2010. They have been added to my map should you wish to see how close you may be to an exchange to be upgraded: http://www.nextgenerationaccess.com/How/BTFTTC/btfttc.html.

You may also be interested to know that BT has announced pricing for the service, to be branded Infinity (note: perhaps they should consult a dictionary before coming up with these names): http://www.btplc.com/News/Articles/Showarticle.cfm?ArticleID=F9F6F1AD-C4F6-442D-BF7E-FFCC7847631C. More...

I've just been reading and commenting on this post on the Fibrevolution blog: http://spedr.com/5ube9 and it has prompted me to write a little more.

There are many challenges in trying to establish a community broadband project - not least of them convincing the community that such high speeds are something they will greatly benefit from. But let's assume I had got over that hurdle (I haven't BTW but let's assume nonetheless) what would my next steps be? Well I would need to start to consider the network topology, the services, the prices and I would need to source the funding. Simple really. Or at least it would be if everyone I had to engage with were committed to helping build a Digital Britain rather than cover their own asses and become the biggest roadblock they can be. More...

Ofcom are looking into use of so called white spaces in the TV spectrum that could be used for other purposes such as delivery of broadband into rural areas.

For more detail on this see the Ofcom website: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2009/11/nr_20091117a

On the surface of it this is good news - this could bring fairly high bandwidth over long distances and be relatively unaffected by buildings, trees or weather. However the key comment in the Ofcom article is "this technology remains largely unproven and a significant amount of work needs to be done..." in other words, don't get your hopes up!

The trouble is this 'new' technology will require new equipment both at the transmitter and receiver ends of the communication path. More...

I'm putting this out for comment. Please feel free to make any suggestions you feel worthwhile.

I have come to understand the dilemma of trying to put in place a community project. It is easy to gain support - a small number of people will always be found to help and support the project. The critical factor is broad engagement. How do you not only inform the whole community about the project but engage them to the extent that they are willing to express a genuine level of interest. Without that broad support the project goes nowhere.

And so I move on to the next phase of my project - community engagement. More...

I spent a couple of days this week at a Telco 2.0 conference in London. Excellent subject and some great presentations and interaction. The premise of the conference is essentially to look at the evolving business model of the telco and how this can take advantage of Web 2.0 like business practices.

We heard from a vast array of 'experts'. Vodafone showed us their new 360 solution which looked great, but sadly the demo failed as there was only a GPRS connection available! We heard from Spotify, the new streaming media service. We had a panel comprising Fergal Sharkey, now CEO of UK Music with representatives from the music industry, the advertising industry and BT and Virgin - all the players in the mix, and guess what? They had consensus on issues such as varying business models to use in the delivery of such content. More...