mike kiely - Convergence Conversation

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Multi-vendor femtocells and a change in spectrum policy!

18 Nov 2009 12:40 1 comment

Multi-vendor femtocells and a change in spectrum policy - a key to convergence.

The Digital Britain report outlined some good starting points for a Universal Service Commitment of 2 Mbps by 2012. This is one of several notes of how users inherent need for more connectivity can drive industry and policy makers to do more and will be used to argue for some changes to the proposed Digital Dividend spectrum auctions in 2012.

The success of wifi routers in enhancing connectivity in our own homes and as an aid to help get our neighbours get connected has an unsung and heroic status in the Digital Britain story so far.

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50p tax reduces the for sale value of Talk Talk Broadband!

5 Nov 2009 10:16 No comments

Carphone Warehouse are committing resources to campaign against the proposed 50p levy to support some investment in improving the nations connectivity. It is also devoting resources against the proposed 3 strikes policy being put about by Mandelson. While the latter position I can support, I do not understand why those resources were not targeted at changing the EU Telecoms package from where any legitimacy for such proposals will draw legal justification. Putting that aside, the very public opposition to the 50p levy does need to be looked at a bit more carefully. More...

Network Sharing and 2010 Digital Britain auction heist!

26 Oct 2009 14:44 No comments

In March 6th, 2000, 13 telecom companies deposited £50m each to take part in an auction for 5 3G spectrum licences. The auction was based on game theory, which was engineered to force the 13 competitors to bid the maximum they could afford or bid to weaken their competitors by forcing up the cost of the other licences . There were 150 rounds of bidding, up to 6 rounds a day, the later rounds reduced to 20 minutes to enter bids. On 27^th of April, 5 companies were awarded licenses having bid a total of £22.4bn. The Treasury (then Chancellor Gordon Brown) and Professor Ken Binmore CBE were pleased with the outcome.

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Digital Britain - auction proposals define future scarcity!

19 Oct 2009 18:53 No comments

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, have issued a consultative document on its intention to direct Ofcom to get on with auctioning the spectrum which is to be released following the move from analogue TV. The document appeared on the very afternoon that Ofcom launched its Digital Participation Consortium. How well are the objectives aligned?

Reconciling the intent of creating a Universal Broadband Service, through defining a minimum commitment, making provision for not spots, and championing the case of the digitally excluded with the practice of selling radio spectrum to the highest bidder will never be easy, some would say the objectives are totally incompatitable. Here is a quick summary of what I could glean. The document kindly outlines some bandwidth scarcity metrics to aid the auction process. It also begins to outline the

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Digital Britain - some additional proposals!

14 Oct 2009 11:02 No comments

Ofcoms consultation on Next Generation networks closed in late September 09. The lack of industry comment is a bit odd because the consultation and responses give a much more thorough examination of the nature of next generation networking compared to anything in the Digital Britain report. Ofcom have done their part in whetting our appetites for high speed connectivity to the extent that neither Ofcom nor industry have a plan to meet all our needs.

To recap the consultation dealt with the big change in BTs focus from replicating its PSTN service with a all new but similar IP based or emulated PSTN service to a focus on delivering higher speed connectivity using fibre to the curb. The shock for Ofcom was the possible impact on ISPs investing in kit in BT exchanges, when the pinch point would no longer be the exchange, but the kerbside cabinets. More...

Ukraine v England - The limits of Digital Britain!

12 Oct 2009 13:33 No comments

The Ukraine v England internet delivered football match did not have the expected volumes, less than 500k viewers to test the national data fabric. It became less a test of a national asset, more a test of our expectations, of hope versus reality. One commentator found the performance pixellated, jittery and buffery, but he failed to make clear whether this was the football or a comment on his connection. It was good to see our 'competitive' market allowed the backup plan to appear so late, broadcasting of recorded highlights on public TV announced after everyone had purchased their subscription. Never the less it makes an interesting study to see how fit the UK internet is for supporting critical events. More...

England v Ukraine - Stress testing Digital Britain

6 Oct 2009 10:46 No comments

This Saturday will be an interesting one for Digital Britain. Up to one million people will be paying between £4.99 and £11.99 to watch a football game live, or nearly live. Paying that amount of money will cause expectations to rise regarding the quality of experience delivered. I just hope, from a public order perspective, no pub owner has the bright idea of paying their £4.99 and pushing the internet delivered image on a large screen.

Will British engineering capacity to manage disasters keep everything going ok, or will the shortcomings of our infrastructure become apparent?

The task at hand, is to deliver a TV experience to a million users over an infrastructure designed for web browsing. There will be some interesting discussions taking place to make this run as smoothly as possible. It is not a good moment to mention Net Neutrality.

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EU Telecoms Package - preserving the present, holding up the future!

14 Sep 2009 11:29 No comments

In one of its last acts the European Parliament sent the EU Telecoms package into a conciliation process. This conciliation process is about to begin. The precise remit is not clear, is it just 3 strikes or will we get a wider review of some ugly clauses? The package, a pan European set of laws harmonising how telecommunication services are defined and sold were rejected on grounds of amendment 38, which has been numerously called three strikes, graduated response, and the Carla Bruni clauses. We can now add the Mandelson meddling to the list. Enough parliamentarians (the Lib Dems, UKIP, Greens, and Scottish Naionalists) and their groups rejected the notion that people could be cut off the internet without a judicial process and sent the whole package back into into conciliation between Parliament, the commission and the European civil service More...

Is the UK Internet still a demo?

4 Sep 2009 17:04 No comments

The Internet celebrated its 40^th birthday this month, and BT gets some 21C based broadband components rolled out. Meanwhile, Ofcom are consulting on the status of Next Generation Networks (NGNs) in the UK and specifically on what to do given BT have have had a significant re-think about its 21^st century network programme. Of slight concern is that the 88 page document does not reference the plan for Universal Broadband service or make any reference to how the spectrum plan will support the creation of a unified data transport layer for Digital Britain. Never the less it is well worth a read. I hope Ofcom will change the positions it is adopting and here's why?

Next Generation networks use the same set of protocols as the Internet does, but promise to create services which are better and more secure. More...

BT 21CN re-focus and Ofcom

27 Aug 2009 12:32 No comments

The Ofcom consultation on the future of NGN and investment is out for comment. Although it has drawn little reaction it is significant in that in stark terms it highlights the re-focus of BT's 21C on providing faster broadband rather than a Next Generation Network focused on emulating legacy services. The nature of the issues posed and those avoided in the summary demonstrates some dilemmas for Ofcom. Thankfully, it is much less confusing for the customer.

Ofcom raises some seemingly complex issues on interconnect, and it emphasis industries pre-occupation with getting a bigger cut of the legacy voice revenues, particularly the origination fees. It also references the control layer, IMS based as todays way, the telecom way (single service with dedicated network resource) as if this means of offering services is fixed for ever.&

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