Author: Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

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Business events

Networking made easy – cricket lovely cricket

Another great day out at the cricket at Trent Bridge. The second day of the Engand v Pakistan yielded some entertaining sport with some very good company.

The picture below is of me (centre) with guests Jeremy Dawkins of Next Event (left) and Mark Jaggers of Soll Leisure (right). You don’t do business with companies, you do business with people.

I think that’s the summer networking series coming to an end now and I’m signing off for two weeks R&R. I’ll be taking the kayaks and the snorkelling gear for a good old British summer holiday, whatever the weather. See you when I get back…

Jeremy Dawkins, Trefor Davies and Mark Jaggers
Jeremy Dawkins, Trefor Davies and Mark Jaggers at the Pakistan test match at Trent Bridge
Categories
Engineer engineering

Today Friday 30th July is System Administrator Appreciation Day

Sys Admins all around the world will this morning come in to their office to be greeted with a standing ovation by the rest of the business – all of whom will have got in early especially to make some nice fresh coffee, bake some croissants and place their tokens of appreciation in a heap on the desk of the said Sys Admin.

You can picture the scene of joy. The broad grin on the face. The feeling of deepest satisfaction knowing that despite

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Categories
End User voip voip hardware

SPA525G VoIP phone by Cisco gets thumbs up

Cisco SPA525G VoIP phone
Cisco SPA525G phone with colour display

Cisco SPA525G VoIP phone gets thumbs up – find out why.

The SPA525G VOIP phone is the flagship model in Cisco’s small business range of IP phones. trefor.net takes it on a road test, kicks the tyres and gives an opinion.

Look & Feel

Cisco SPA525G phone
Cisco SPA525G phone with colour display

If you think the SPA525G VoIP phone looks familiar it’s because this phone and the other models in the range are the direct replacements for the popular SPA900 series, inherited by Cisco as part of the Linksys acquisition in 2003.

There is, however, a considerable uplift in the quality of plastics used throughout and the receiver itself appears to be lifted directly from Cisco’s higher priced 7900 range.

The general impression is of a very solid device that will survive the rigours of office life for many years to come.

Once you power the unit up you can admire the full colour screen which you only get on the 525G. The other models in the range make do with a monochrome display. You can set the background image from a number of pre-loaded files or import one of your own by using the integrated USB

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datacentre End User internet social networking

@tref on Twitter…Two Years, Ten Weeks, Two Days and Counting

I joined twitter 802 days ago on 17th May 2008. Since then as @tref on Twitter I have sent 2,623 tweets, an average of just over three a day. Not too bad for anyone who thinks I spend too long on the site.

In June, according to twitter COO Dick Costolo twitter had 190 million users, growing by 300 thousand a day. These users were generating 65million tweets a day – that’s enough for twitter to be building its own brand new datacentre to handle all the traffic.

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Engineer internet

Bandwidth explosions

We are currently seeing an explosive growth in the distribution and delivery of digital video content across both fixed and mobile networks. Four years ago 100 million videos were watched on YouTube every day. It is two billion today. The BBC’s iPlayer launched in December 2007. It now delivers over 120 million requests every day which adds up to 7 petabytes of data a month.

As a result of this, the volume of data carried by mobile operators has risen twentyfold over the last two years (thanks iPhone), and is forecast to grow almost as much again in the next two years. The figures for fixed operators are less dramatic but still very significant.

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Categories
broadband Business internet ofcom

Ofcom – Increased Broadband Speeds and ISP Voluntary Code of Practice

Big headliner from Ofcom this morning is that average broadband speeds in the UK have increased by over 25% in the past year. Research, conducted in partnership with broadband monitoring specialists SamKnows, has found that speeds have increased from 4.1Mbit/s to 5.2Mbit/s.

This is no surprise really as ISPs move their base from ADSLMax (“up to 8Meg”) over to ADSL2+ (“up to 24Meg”). It’s a shame that the average is not higher but that’s copper for you. The research showed that cable customers fare significantly better than ADSL.

The Ofcom data also reveals some very interesting stats about performance during peak times that don’t do some ISPs any favours.

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Categories
Engineer events

Networking made easy – part 2

Regular readers may have noticed the distinct lack of blog posts last week. At least there were none relating to ip networking, the internet, communications or any other subject I normally spout on about.

That’s because I was out of the office most of the week in an exhausting series of meetings and dinners culminating in a couple of days in Lymington on the south coast. I spent the entire time talking about MPLS, Unified Communications, “the cloud” and current regulatory hot topics in the ISP industry.

The picture below shows me coming up on deck with the team for fresh air before moving on to talk about data centres and  the future of mobile data / handheld devices.

In case anyone worries we did make sure that we were well fed and watered during the meetings. A supply of premier cru chablis and bordeaux accompanies the smoked salmon/crab/lobster/duck/caviar/aged aberdeen angus fillet steak (delete according to taste).

Trefor Davies (centre) surrounded by some hardworking Timico customers taking a break from talking networks

PS I have a backlog of jobs to get on with this week including some more serious blog posts. Watch this space.

Categories
Engineer events

Networking made easy

Its tough at the top and it takes a special breed of individual to stay the pace.  In this case the pace was being set by Timico Business Partner UES who had sponsored a horse race at the UK’s newest track, Ffos Las near Llanelli.

I have to admire the marketing nouse of UES whose sponsored race was entitled the “Reduce your utility bills with UES Maiden Handicap Stakes”.  This message will have been carried in every newspaper in the UK on Tuesday -” The Watchtower” excepted if it is still going.

You may have noticed that the weather was a little damp. It’s what makes God’s Country so green and pleasant.

Rows of unhappy bookmakers brave the elements at Ffos Las racecourse
Rows of unhappy bookmakers brave the elements at Ffos Las racecourse

 

the paddock at Ffos Las
From left to right Andrew Diplock, Commercial Director, UES, Gerallt Jones, Partner Corporate, Hugh James, Christian Pegrum, EON, me, Kate Williams, Marketing Manager, UES
Categories
End User fun stuff

The Art of communications

A prize for anyone who can guess what I’m playing.

Prize if you can guess what I'm playing
Prize if you can guess what I'm playing
Categories
Business events

trefor.net sponsors Mongol Rally

One of our VoIP engineers Wayne Mills-Kiddals is setting off this week on a drive to Ulan Bator in Mongolia. It’s going to take him a month or so but it is in a good cause – he is raising cash for the Christina Noble Foundation. I will be providing periodic updates on his progress and in the meantime have created a temporary page on this blog so that we can track him via GPS.

It has been a huge organisational effort for Wayne. His passport is now much thicker as it has visas for Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and finally Mongolia.

Wish him luck – we want him back 🙂

Categories
Business internet security

Facebook and CEOP collaborate on child protection

The Child Exploitation and Protection Centre (CEOP) and Facebook announced an initiative that gives Facebook users direct access to CEOP’s advice and reporting centre from their Facebook homepage.

The initiative is not based on a standard panic button solution but on a CEOP Facebook App and a CEOP Facebook page. This means that only users who install the app will have direct access to CEOP.

I have met CEOP CEO Jim Gamble during the course of meetings between CEOP and the ISPA and understand the hugely difficult nature of their job. CEOP volunteer staff have to spend much of their time looking at horrendous photographic evidence of child abuse. It isn’t something that a person can do for too long due to the mental stresses involved.

The success of the whole Facebook initiative depends on whether or not the CEOP app becomes viral. To facilitate the distribution of the app, Facebook has agreed to support the initiative via an advertising campaign.

CEOP deserves your support.

Categories
Business Regs voip

Voice over IP – a techno-regulatory view

Here is an article written by Trefor Davies and Louise Lancaster in the Institute of Telecoms Professionals’ Journal and published this month.

It covers a bit of the history of VoIP technology, where it has evolved to today and some current issues such as number porting and naked DSL.

vol4_p2_26-32

For more information on the ITP you can visit their website at www.theitp.org/journal

Categories
broadband Business internet

Government Pushes Back 2Meg USC to 2015 – Let’s forget 2Meg and Go Straight to FTTP

I read in Jeremy Hunt’s speech at the Broadband Delivery UK industry day today that due to the lack of funds the government has moved the target date for implementation of its 2Meg Universal Service Commitment out to the “end of this parliament” or in other words 2015 (see my post in March on the feasibility of doing it by 2012).

It is about time everyone realised this is a waste of effort.  Lets forget about 2Meg and go straight for Fibre To The Premises (FTTP).  FTTP for the Final third by 2015 is a sensible objective.

Categories
broadband Business internet Regs

Broadband Delivery UK Industry Day #BDUK

Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK) is today holding an “industry day aimed at companies and organisations that have skills, capabilities and assets that they believe could be used to help deliver the government’s Universal Service Commitment and superfast broadband market testing projects”.

The agenda for the day, which is being held within the BIS offices at 1 Victoria Street, London is as follows:

09:30 – 10:00   Registration & Coffee
10:00 – 10:10   Introduction and Welcome – Ed Vaizey
10:10 – 11:00   Setting the context – Jeremy Hunt

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Categories
Business internet video

Polycom Telepresence impresses ITSPA

I’ve only seen a single screen telepresence demo before and that was on a noisy exhibition floor.  At Polycom’s City Executive Briefing Centre yesterday I was treated the to a full blown demo and boy was it impressive.  The quality was astounding.

Attendees at the ITSPA Summer Forum sat on one side of an oval conference table that was mirrored on 4 large screens in front of us. A Polycom representative (sorry didn’t catch his name) did the spiel from the other room located in Slough.

It was as if he was in the same room and he could even hear the side conversations going on on our side of the table.

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Categories
Business ofcom voip

Mobile operators wreaking havoc with pricing

At the ITSPA Summer Forum, held yesterday at Polycom’s City offices  there was a panel of VoIP wholesalers debating the health of the market. The panel consisted of representatives from BT, Gamma, X-Connect, Magrathea and Timico (ie moi).

The market it turns out is very healthy with everyone reporting growth in VoIP minutes over and above old fashioned TDM minutes. We also debated number porting – a large subject in its own right that has already featured on this blog but is going to be a lot more visible over the next few months.

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Categories
Engineer internet voip

VONGA is dead – long live FVA? – Openreach

BT has killed off VoNGA. Bit of a shame really because I was kinda fonda VoNGA. Voice over Next Generation Access or VoNGA was BT Openreach’s initial stab at voice over fibre and initially at least notionally aimed at new developments where it didn’t make sense to put legacy voice infrastructure into an exchange.

Now BT has strangled VoNGA in the womb. We never really heard it’s first cry.

Don’t get me wrong. It was only the acronym I liked – I thought it sounded good. The product itself, a reduced feature

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Categories
Business voip

ITSPA AGM and Summer Forum at the v plush Polycom offices in the City

Just stepped into the Polycom offices at 69 Old Broad Street in the City. I am here for the ITSPA council meeting, AGM and Summer Workshop.

The offices are super plush and impressively I didn’t have to sign in at reception. The receptionist pushed a button on a panel and a lift door opened to take me directly to the 16th floor. There were no buttons inside the lift to press other than “door open” and “alarm”.

I was whisked straight to the 16th floor and the lift door opened. The receptionist on the 16th floor said “welcome Mr Davies” and showed me to the coffee lounge.

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Categories
Business mobile connectivity ofcom

Ofcom sets April 2011 deadline for faster mobile number porting

Ofcom has set a deadline of April 2011 for mobile network operators to speed up the process for their customers to port their numbers to competitors.  Customers will be able to change suppliers within 24 hours.  Believe it or not as a Service Provider I like this idea because it is good for our customers. It means that we either do a good job of servicing customers or they leave (subject to contract of course J ).

Companies offering good service will prevail.  Grauniad article here.

Categories
Business internet

ISPA Awards 2010 Winners

Here’s a list of winners from last night’s ISPAs. I have to declare some involvement in that I voted for both “successful” Hero and Villain and that NewNet, winner of the Best Dedicated Hosting category,  is a Timico Group business – well done lads. I’m proud of you 🙂

Best Shared Hosting winner is: Namesco

The judges were impressed with Namesco’s high level of customer satisfaction, with good use of security and technical support complemented by a clear pricing structure.

Best Dedicated Hosting winner is: NewNet

In an extremely competitive category, the judges decided that NewNet’s wide product range, provision of 24/7 technical support and a dedicated account manager set them apart from their competitors.

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Categories
Business internet piracy Regs

BT TalkTalk ISPAs Judicial Reviews and Feargal Sharkey

Much in the news yesterday was the request from BT and TalkTalk for a judicial review into the Digital Economy Act. Nobody I spoke to from the ISP industry had any further details of this other than to say that Sky and Virgin were notably absent from the story line.

This is likely to be because the latter two are far more closely aligned to the content provision industry with BT and TalkTalk being really just (or largely in the case of BT) connectivity providers.

People should not get too excited at the prospect of a Judicial Review. This is just a process of checking to see that the legal process was followed. Did it receive the required number of readings in Parliament? etc.etc

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Categories
Business internet Regs surveillance & privacy

@tom_watson MP is the ISPA Internet Hero for 2010 #DEAct #digitalbritain

2010 ISPA Internet Hero Tom Watson MP
2010 ISPA Internet Hero Tom Watson MP

At tonight’s Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA)  Awards Labour MP for West BromwichTom Watson was announced as the Internet Hero for 2010. This is just a bit of fun at the one time in the year that the ISP industry lets its hair down, but it does have its serious side.

The work that Tom Watson did in opposing parts of the Digital Economy Bill was highly creditable. He stood up for human rights and fairness. It shows that Members of Parliament do have a conscience and are willing to speak out when that conscience troubles them.

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broadband Business internet

Broadband Local Architecture: FTTC and FTTP

FTTC and FTTP broadband local architectures? We’ve got the pictures!

FTTC broadband continues to be a popular subject on this blog. It gets linked to from all sorts of non-telecom forums.  There is clearly a hunger for information on faster broadband.

In the interest of adding to the body of information out there I’ve added some more info in this post.  Firstly pictures of both the FTTC broadband local architecture and the FTTP  broadband local architecture, and a link to the BT Openreach FTTC / FTTP product page. Note the larger cabinet for FTTC.

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broadband Business internet mobile connectivity

O2 BE broadband

Met with O2 and BE today for a general chat about the BE broadband network. They are pushing a wholesale offering and are now one of only four Tier 1 broadband wholesalers in the UK – BT, TalkTalk and Cable and Wireless being the others. Reality is I don’t see C&W doing much so probably there are only really three of them.

Telefonica has been backing BE and making not insignificant investments in their network. Their current ADSL2+ offering is competitive. The longer term question for them is really the same as for TalkTalk and that is how to leverage a new (ish) high capacity backbone once ADSL2+ becomes old hat and the world has moved on to greater and faster connectivity.

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Categories
dns Engineer internet

Nominet non-exec election results out @sebtweet

Congratulations to Seb Lahtinen and Thomas Vollrath on their election as non-executive directors to the board of .uk registrar Nominet.

I did an interview with Seb nobbut two days ago and I’m sure that his return to the board will provide value for Nominet.

Nominet has been much in the news this year as the previous government gave itself powers to intervene in the running of the not-for profit org if it felt that the existing Directors were not doing their job.

It is important that we have a steady hand at the helm of the registrar looking after our .uk domain names as businesses become more dependant on the internet.

You can see the Nominet election results here. The system is quite brutal in that your progress as a candidate is highly visible.

Categories
Business internet

Guest blog post over at Broadbandgenie

My monthly guest blog post is up at broadbandgenie.co.uk. World cup stuff.

Categories
Apps Business internet

TfL & twitter highlight need for reliability in cloud

Two weeks ago I got excited that you can now plot the progress of trains on the London Underground. Unfortunatley so popular was this service that the Transport for London server providing  the data has ground to a halt.  I’d like to think it was because of the publicity it they received from trefor.net but I doubt that was the case.

This morning twitter is slow as a tortoise, at least from platforms such as tweetdeck that rely on using the twitter API.  This is just as organisations are learning how to use the service to their advantage. For example I retweeted a National Rail tweet this morning in the hope of winning £90 worth of Oyster Card top up.

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Categories
Business ofcom voip

Scandalous delays by Openreach harming consumers and competition

If you want to port your existing telephone number to a VoIP provider (Internet Telephony Service Provider/ITSP) you can do, by and large. If this number is the number of the analogue phone line that carries the broadband connection that the VoIP service runs over you are knackered because the minute the number is ported the analogue line is ceased and therefore the broadband will stop working.

Of course you can’t run VoIP on a broadband connection that isn’t a broadband connection because it isn’t working. How good is that?

If consumers want to move away from an incumbent telco (for incumbent read slow moving, lacking innovation

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Categories
Business dns internet

Challenges for Nominet – An Interview with Sebastien Lahtinen

Sebastien Lahtinen is probably most well known for being behind the independent broadband advice website thinkbroadband.com which helps broadband users to get the most out of their broadband connection. He has also been involved in the policy development and governance processes of Nominet, and is a candidate in the current elections for a seat on the Nominet board.

What are the key challenges for Nominet in the next four years?
The next few years will be a critical time for Nominet as it looks to respond to the need for change. Nominet will face challenges both internally within its own organisation as well as externally.

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Categories
Engineer UC voip

Belgacom rolls out VoIP core using Sonus Networks

Interesting to see that Belgacom ICS , the fourth largest wholesale voice provider in the world, has completely changed over to a VoIP core using Sonus Networks kit. The project, which migrated the equivalent of more than 10,000 E1 TDM and SIP trunks, took only 15 months.

There will be massive cost savings for Belgacom here. Often the business case for this type of migration is justifiable on purely the savings in electricity used to run the old and inefficient TDM switch gear.

In the UK we have the BT 21Century Network but I am not aware that BT has yet undertaken an activity on the same scale as Belgacom. Certainly it has put off migration of exchanges until 2020.

Coincidentally I recently had Sonus in for a chat to look at their new Session Border Controller. Check out the post here.