Convergence Conversation Info 17th October 2008

The Weekly Roundup: Friday 17th October

Here's this week's roundup of the hot topics on Convergence Conversations.

Its that time of the week again! Are you ready to read the best stories from Convergence Conversations over the last 5 days?

Lots of great blogs once more covering some very important and challenging topics. More finance related matters make the cut with news of the next convergence evening on October 30th. This next conversation will analyse how technology companies are likely to fair in an economic downturn, with key speakers confirmed from J.P.Morgan, Intel Consulting, Enders Analysis, and Ingenious Consulting. Sign up online now!

Away from event plugging and into the depths of analysis, Antony Walker of the BSG discovers just how much progress BT are looking to make on superfast broadband, Simon Torrance investigates how BMW are using mobile marketing, and Benoit Felton brings us highlights from the 12th ARCEP symposium.

Enjoy!

BT wants superfast progress on superfast broadband

by Antony Walker of Broadband Stakeholder Group

In a week not short on news you may have missed Ian Livingstone's article in the Daily Telegraph on 6 October. His view "the market, not the government, is best placed to build fibre infrastructure" may sound like rather old fashioned Thatcherite dogma these days, but BT is staying resolutely on message that delivering on next generation broadband should not mean giving up on competition, either in the UK or in Europe.

Livingstone set out a vision of Britain having the most widely available broadband of any country in the world, the highest broadband speeds and the most competitive market. More...

'Convergence Conversation event at Ingenious Media – 30th October'

by Colin Batten of Intellect

‘How will technology companies fare in an economic downturn?’.

The Convergence Conversation takes place on Thursday 30th October at the offices of Ingenious Media, for the third event in a new series.

What is the topic at the next conversation?

The Press have reported in numbers the recent news of major technology companies share prices falling. In the face of this bad news little has been done to ascertain why this has occurred, or to understand how technology companies will fare in a wider economic downturn. More...

12th ARCEP Symposium - First Session

by Benoît FELTEN of London

Yesterday, French Regulator ARCEP hosted it's 12th annual symposium, subtitled Investment, Innovation and Competition: the road to Ultra-Broadband. Since it was local and of interest, I decided to attend. There were 4 sessions, I'll make a post about each, and then a final post about my thoughts on the whole event: From broadband to ultra-broadband: do multiple paths lead to a unique model?

Competition through Infracstructure: what are the main infrastructures?

Risk, investment and innovation: More...

How BMW uses mobile marketing

by Simon Torrance of STL partners

As readers will no doubt have seen, we have a major session with strategy execs on ‘telcos role in the marketing/advertising value chain’ on the second day of the Telco 2.0 event in November. It builds on output from our ‘Advertising & Marketing 2.0’ research practice and work we’ve been doing with the GSMA and others (see also new analysis re Blyk here). In particular we will will be drilling down on:

* The practicalities of exploiting the rich customer data More...

Digital design in its wider context

by Colin Batten of Intellect

As the news hits that design mogul James Dyson has backed out of the planned multi-million design school in Bath, it’s worth taking a moment or two to consider the importance of design to digital convergence and the electronics industry as a whole.

The Finish Architect Eiliel Saarinen once said, ‘always design a thing by considering it in its wider context’. For the purpose of this blog then the thing is a converged device and the context is modern society. There are many pressures upon the design of new devices that stem from society. More...