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Universal Broadband call by Lord Carter

5 Jan 2009 15:36 No comments

The Register commenting on an article in The Times mentions Lord Carters call for a Universal Broadband service funded by industry to replace the outdated USO on PSTN,  62,000 public payphones and a text direct service.

One is tempted to state you read it on this forum first,  but the notion of running a consultation on how this might be achieved could be an interesting exercise,  especially in advance of the spectrum auction.  The basic proposition is to define a minimum bandwidth, perhaps 500kbps with a defined quality within whatever 'up to' claim of 8mbps, 24mbps, 50mbps or 100mbps.  Fixed  (Copper or Fibre) or Mobile does not matter,  it's the connectivity and what we can do with that conenctivity is what is important,  not the medium. More...

Digital Inclusion and the Spectrum Auction - some Christmas reading

5 Dec 2008 12:47 No comments
It's been a week of huge contrasts in the fields of Digital Inclusion.
HMG is running a consultation on Delivering Digital Inclusion until January 19th 2009.  It  lists a 70 point action plan aimed at getting the poor and elderly connected.  It also highlights  the much more tricky task of making taxpayer rationed services to the poor more friendly.  The paper is remarkable!  It outlines a whole body of current projects from Telecare,  to prisoner IT education, to the network of 6,000 public internet spaces.   The latter I had thought was my local library realising it was in the information business and not the book business , but I got that one wrong, no matter!
The consultation references a Charter and the appointment of a Digital Inclusion Champion,  but if you look at the current activity  it should ask, how do we take these projects More...

UK Universal Broadband - declared on Nov 5th

18 Nov 2008 11:01 No comments

The UK newish  Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting,  Lord Carter of Barnes in his opening speech to the Lords on the 5th of November,  made four wishes,  1)full digital television service available on multiple platforms,  2) a universally available Broadband system competitively priced with meaningful speeds,  3) a truly national digital radio network,  and 4) a mobile/wireless industry that will do for video what it has already done for voice.
This is historic,  inspiring even!  It is good and it has taken 13 days to find it! 
Given this is a conversation about 'convergence',  one is immediately drawn to the links between the four wishes.  Should Digital TVs be equipped with cameras?  Should the free view boxes and set top boxes have a Broadband connection and browser?  It seems odd to ex
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Future Access and Future Internet

30 Oct 2008 12:43 1 comment

There is plenty of information flowing on future fibre access,  and it is great to see BERR begining the 'Broadband for all' trials in Oldham and Suffolk.  The EU commission is also busy on fibre access policy formulation,  briefing the commission on future internet services,  and concerned about future innovation. It has  also announced a 2009 review to see whether the USO review should include Broadband. We now have the 'Digital Britain' report to look forward too by Lord Carter.

 All this,  yet we still have no minimum performance guarantees of service for Broadband,  no effective labeling of services, thus no transparency of service.  As the SAMKNOWS report shows the engineers have built stable, (they must be stable to work) but different flavoured broadband services and in an odd way,  the marketeers in selling total, complete, f More...

Future Access and Future Internet

30 Oct 2008 12:36 No comments

There is plenty of information flowing on future fibre access,  and it is great to see BERR begining the 'Broadband for all' trials in Oldham and Suffolk.  The EU commission is also busy on fibre access policy formulation,  briefing the commission on future internet services,  and concerned about future innovation. It has  also announced a 2009 review to see whether the USO review should include Broadband. We now have the 'Digital Britain' report to look forward too by Lord Carter.

 All this,  yet we still have no minimum performance guarantees of service for Broadband,  no effective labeling of services, thus no transparency of service.  As the SAMKNOWS report shows the engineers have built stable, (they must be stable to work) but different flavoured broadband services and in an odd way,  the marketeers in selling total, complete, f More...

Caio, NGA, Internet and NGN

15 Sep 2008 14:49 No comments
The only thing wrong with Caio report on NGA access was the headlines it received!  Even half reading the report,  you could have equally written,  'Caio demands ten years of determined action to define and make Broadband Britain what it could be!'  Public funding for roll out in the short term (1 year) was ruled out but a set of detailed actions were called for before the nature of any intervention could be asessed for the next decade.  Even shutting the report there would be a shame!  The report highlighted the importance of Broadband access and the Internet to the economy and that it should be treated as a digital utility,  with the need for a vision and objectives to be articulated for whatever Broadband Britain could become.  He called for the early release of wifi-spectrum and the need to publish the detailed composition of existing broad More...

NGA and the Digital Divide

8 Sep 2008 08:23 1 comment

NGA and the Digital Divide

Any call to lessen the digital divide must be welcomed,  and thus the statement by the Oftcom Consumer Panel  (Sept 3rd) encouraging different business models to support the roll out of fibre (next generation access) by community groups needs to be applauded.  The BSG report this morning detailing the costs of fibre access is also insightful.   But why the emphasis on 100 Mbps best effort access,  when healthcare applications including a national multi-media communication service could be run on a 500kbps bi-directional assured service?
If we are serious about reducing the Digital Divide then we need to examine, 1) the definition of a standard broadband connection and 2) look at the notion of replacing  the Univesral Service Obligations for the telephone service,  the costs of which are borne by BT only,  and re
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mike kiely
Founder at BBBritain
Office: London

Joined industry in 2005
Member since 8 Sep 2008
Last login 15 hours ago

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