Author: Trefor Davies

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

Categories
Business voip

ITSPA event just two weeks to go #VoIP #polycom #microsoft

It’s only two weeks to the Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association (ITSPA) Summer Forum due to take place on Tuesday 13th July at the Polycom offices, Old Broad Street, London.

These events, chaired by yours truly, have become “must attend” occasions for ITSPs in the UK. On this occasion we have a Keynote Speech from Microsoft, an update from BT Openreach on their NGN VoIP plans, a talk from Polycom and a panel discussion on “Wholesale “VoIP. There is also an update from Matt Townend from Illume on the “State of the Union” in the VoIP market.

The wholesale panel has representation from the leading wholesalers in this space: Gamma, Magrathea, BT IP Exchange and X-Connect.

If you want to come there are still some places left though these things usually sell out nearer to the day so you need to be quick. Email [email protected] for more info.

Categories
Business internet Regs surveillance & privacy

Julian Huppert MP Early Day Motion needs help #DEAct #digitalbritain #DEBill

On 25th May Julian Huppert MP tabled an Early Day Motion calling for the repeal the Digital Economy Act 2010. To date only 34 MPs have supported it!

It is hard to see what we can do to raise the profile of this issue, other than by continually banging on about it. We may have to wait for some high profile failures of the process, by which time of course the ISP industry will have spent a fortune implementing the systems required under the Act.

In the words of the EDM “large repercussions for consumers, civil liberties, freedom of information and access to the internet”

The suffragettes used to chain themselves to railings and throw themselves under horses.  This is not worth losing a life for but there must be a way.

Categories
Archived Business

Timico hits the headlines at FCS Awards

I’m pleased to announce (somewhat belatedly but I was mega busy last week) that Timico was runner up in the Federation of Communication Services Communications Provider of the Year 2010 Award.

I did think about this before writing this post. Runner up doesn’t sound as good as Winner. Having thought about it though the FCS has knocking on 300 members so second out of that many isn’t so bad. We aren’t even members so nobody can say it was a stitch-up.

Next up ISPAs 8th July.

Categories
competitions End User

and the winner is #chocolate #chocolatecake #justforfun

The carrot cake competition was so successful that I was asked to organise another bake-off but this time with chocolate cake.

The 5 entries, shown below, were all top class and there were on 1 1/2 points separating the first and second place cakes.

the 5 entries for the Timico chocolate cake competition
the 5 entries for the Timico chocolate cake competition

The winner, with a fine triple decker offering, was Head of Product management, Andrew Massing – shown below being presented with his certificate.

Andrew massing (left) is presented with his certificate for "Best Chocolate Cake, 2010"
Andrew massing (left) is presented with his certificate for "Best Chocolate Cake, 2010"

Below is me during the judging.  This is a highly responsible job that has to be taken very seriously as you wouldn’t believe the competitive nature of the entrants:)

trefor davies judges the Timico chocolate cake competition
trefor davies judges the Timico chocolate cake competition
Categories
End User media mobile connectivity

#Glastonbury – people at the back were watching online on mobiles #glasto

I’m told that some people at Glastonbury found it easier to watch the event streaming video to their mobile phones even though they were at the gig itself.

If you were stood at the back apparently the picture on your mobile phone was bigger than the live view of the stage. I remember once going to a Bruce Springsteen gig in Roundhay Park in Leeds (some time ago now I should add). If I held up my little finger horizontally at arms length Bruce was about half the height of the fingernail.

I’d be surprised if there was much bandwidth available to stream to a mobile at Glastonbury though I suppose with the

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Categories
Engineer internet

100GigE std ratified but 10Gig is still where it is at

The IEEE has just ratified the 100GigE standard. We all knew it was coming. It was foretold.  I’m not that excited though.  I doubt that many people are because 100GigE is currently in the domain of the few. Not many networks have enough traffic to merit using it.

What I am excited about is our own plans to roll out 10GigE across our core network. For me this is a big step forward. Having started an ISP 5 years ago with a 1Gig core it is quite  a momentous event. It is being driven by the amount of high speed Ethernet connections being sold to businesses in the UK. There is literally an explosion of them. I have more bandwidth orders in provisioning for the next three months than sold in the previous 5 years.

We are in the UK, I believe, currently seeing a new wave of connectivity in the same way that broadband has grown over the past few years.  Broadband has levelled off but in the business world there is a hunger for faster and more reliable connections.

For us the 10Gig investment actually gives us up to 40Gig of capacity and represented a major board level decision. This is not a low cost play. The decison on where to spend valuable capital is sometimes a gamble, albeit one based on careful research. I don’t think this one is such a risk.  There is a lot of business out there.  You just have to have the right funds to buy into the game.

Categories
Business Regs surveillance & privacy

government to scrap 75% of their websites – any suggestions?

It was startling to read in the Daily Telegraph that UK Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude said he would be scrapping three quarters of the Government’s 820 websites. You can read the article for yourselves but it is amazing how much some of these sites cost per visit.

The most expensive websites were uktradeinvest.gov.uk which costs £11.78 per visit and businesslink.gov.uk which costs £2.15 per visit.

I did a quick search and the Telegraph seems to the the only site carrying this story. In searching I did find the following A-Z of central government websites. Perhaps we can have some suggestions as to which ones should be first for the chop.

I bumped into a pal a couple of weeks ago who spent some time doing some contract work for a government department. He was incredulous as to the level of ignorance in respect of technology.  There were he said projects happening that were a complete waste of time and money.  You get the impression of things being done for the sake of being seen to be doing something.

I guess this is a real problem generally for UK plc as is witnessed by the mistakes made in the Digital Economy Act – rushed through in ignorance without proper due diligence.

Categories
Business internet media

UK is 21.3% of Global internet traffic during England v Slovenia #worldcup match says Akamai

Global content delivery network Akamai is showing its UK traffic today as 21.3% of the global internet traffic.  Whilst it isn’t true to extrapolate this to say that the UK represents 21.3% of all global internet traffic today it is a reasonable indicator as to the UK share of overall usage.

This is certainly being seen at Timico where our streaming traffic is up 357% which is even higher than yesterday’s reported budget watching traffic.  This was itself a record 309% increase. Twitter is struggling this afternoon and the live football stream from the BBC on my 100Mbps connection is not great so – now you know why.

Photo below is a screenshot showing global network hotspots.

Global Akamai network hotspot map during the world cup match between England and Slovenia
Global Akamai network hotspot map during the world cup match between England and Slovenia
Categories
Business internet media

#Budget eclipses #worldcup #wimbledon #cricket for online video streaming

Wimbledon doesn’t appear to be starting online until 14.40hrs. The budget speech is online, the England v Australia 1 day cricket match is online, there is no World Cup football until 15.00hrs. So what eh?

So video streaming has hit another high. It is up 309% on the norm. The World Cup has seen a 171% increase so many more people are interested in the budget than in the world cup. 

All the recent major political events have seen large spikes in internet traffic online. This goes back to Obama’s inauguration, the last budget speech under the Labour government and the day after Polling Day in the recent general election, which was in itself a local maximum, to use my A Level maths.

Fortunately for ISPs the Chancellor of the Exchequer and his cronies are a fairly static lot.  In other words the only bit of moving is the occasional waving of an order paper (or whatever they call them in Parliament – “The Dandy” probably). This means that the bandwidth usage hasn’t gone up in proportion to the number of users online in the way that it does for the sport. Movement means change which means lots of bandwidth usage when it comes to video streaming.

Tomorrow is the biggie.  The last England Group match and one that they have to win.  It’s all there: passion, excitement, intrigue, dissent, highs, lows, vuvuzelas,  tears and tattoos but no romance – the WAGS have stayed away.

Read all about it on trefor.net.  Order, order! No hang on the budget speech has finished. Everyone has started doing some work again.

Categories
Apps Engineer internet media

Sport streaming on the internet this afternoon #worldcup #wimbledon

At work I have a 100Mbps of uncontended bandwidth to play with.  It does me. I thought I’d watch some sport this afternoon, in between stuff. This was partly because I drew Chile in the office sweepstake – they are playing Switzerland as I write – and partly because I’m taking one of my lads to Wimbledon on Thursday – centre court – keep an eye out for me in the crowd.

Both sports are being covered on BBC  iPlayer this afternoon. I can of course watch both at the same time – and that’s despite being a bloke (or is it because of it?) –

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Categories
Archived Business

Cisco Sales Expert Gemma Barsby

One of the nice things about my job is the fact that I am surrounded by talented people. The photo below is of me presenting Timico sales executive Gemma Barsby with a bottle of bubbly for passing her Cisco Sales Expert examination. She’ll be the one buying the champagne in future with all the commission I expect her to be earning. Hope she remembers me when she’s rich and famous!

Trefor Davies presents Gemma Barsby with a bottle of champagne for passing the Cisco sales examination
Trefor Davies presents Gemma Barsby with a bottle of champagne for passing the Cisco Sales Expert examination

As a footnote the more training a sales person gets the more he or she will bring in in revenues, assuming there’s a reasonable brain there in the first place.

Categories
Apps End User internet

Real time tube map of London Underground

There are lots of bad things about the wild wild web but the good things can seriously outweigh them.

This morning I picked this up off twitter. It is, as near as matters, a live map of the London Underground system showing the real time positions of trains. It is in the same vein as the live air traffic control map that I posted about during the volcanic ashcloud crisis. If nothing else it is a bit of fun but it does show the power of technology.

You might want to bookmark this post so that you can compare what it looks like during one of the periodic tube

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Categories
broadband Business internet

Digital Vacuum Sucks in Digby? Fibrestream NextGenUs #FTTP #finalthirdfirst #digitalbritain

I braved the elements of a windswept rural Lincolnshire on Saturday to visit the Digby Fete. Digby is in the middle of nowhere. It’s two main distinguishing features are the fact that it is the home of RAF Digby and that it is the next village on the map to Ashby De La Launde.

The proximity to Ashby has become an irritant to the good parishioners of Digby because their neighbouring village has just announced that it is getting 100Mbps Fibre To The Premises (FTTP). Up until now neither village could get decent broadband connectivity.

Continue reading “Digital Vacuum Sucks in Digby? Fibrestream NextGenUs #FTTP #finalthirdfirst #digitalbritain”
Categories
broadband Business internet Regs

@tom_watson @andrewpercy Questions to @edvaizey on Broadband Miscellany #finalthirdfirst #digitalbritain #FTTP

It’s Friday afternoon and the first time this week I have been able to sit down and blog, this time about broadband miscellany. It could be a full time activity if I had the time as so much stuff passes my way.

I note that Minister for Communications Ed Vaizey has been demonstrating his politcal sidestepping skills by answering MP Tom Watson’s request for a definition of “super fast broadband” with:

“Super fast broadband means broadband of sufficient speed and quality to deliver the services that will lead to Britain having the best broadband network in Europe. The technology used to deliver this could be fixed or wireless but will represent a significant upgrade on today’s fixed and wireless networks.”

Continue reading “@tom_watson @andrewpercy Questions to @edvaizey on Broadband Miscellany #finalthirdfirst #digitalbritain #FTTP”
Categories
Business voip

Sonus Networks SBCs and the South of France

It either makes me feel old or says how long I’ve been in the VoIP business when I say that I first met the founder of Sonus Networks, Ruben Gruber at a Pulver.com Executive Retreat in the South of France in 1998. I don’t think they even had a product at that time.

Sonus was Ruben Gruber’s 13th startup. 11 of these companies either floated or were sold privately and the two that didn’t make it were absorbed into the parent. That was an impressive record. 

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Categories
Business voip

#VoIP SNOM #SIP and the Football #WorldCup

When I first started looking at SNOM phones, perhaps 9 years ago, they were not very impressive. The handset was easy to knock off its cradle and the voice was tinny.

The phone firmware was impressive and the fact that SNOM was a very early runner in the SIP market is to their great credit.  SNOM is an entrepreneurial business.

The fact that SNOM is still around is also hugely to their credit and their handsets have come on in dramatic leaps and bounds. The quality of the plastics has improved and their expertise in software still comes clearly to the fore.

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Categories
End User internet

#WorldCup streaming popularity contest – Spain v Switzerland lead so far

You can tell which teams hold the most interest based on how busy the network is on any afternoon this week.

It all started with England’s warm up game last week. Quite a few people watched that online but not as many as watched the Opening ceremony. Yesterday’s Spain v Switzerland match is the most popular to date.

1 Wednesday 16th Spain v Switzerland
2 Friday 11th South Africa v Mexico
3 Tuesday 15th New Zealand v Slovakia
4 Tuesday 15th Ivory coast v Portugal
5 Monday 14th Netherlands v Denmark
6 Monday 14th Japan v Cameroon
7 Friday 11th Opening Ceremony
8 Wednesday 16th Honduras v Chile
9 England pre-tournament friendly
9 Thursday 17th Greece v Nigeria
9 Thursday 17th Argentina v South Korea

This doesn’t look at evening matches which I imagine most people will watch on their TV or in the pub. It is also only based on Timico’s network so other ISPs may have different rankings (for what it’s worth – there is no money changing hands here – yet).

Just a bit of fun.

Categories
internet mobile connectivity

iPhone Nokia N97 iPad Apple consumer versus business

My mobile phone, an N97, ran out of battery yesterday. It normally lasts 2 days but there was a network problem and it kept searching for a GPRS signal. It wan’t really the phone’s fault but it does go to show that battery technology has still some way to go with mobiles, especially as we are trying to do more with the device.

The N97 is supposed to be targeted at consumers.  It has a 30Gig hard drive so all my music fits on it. It also has a nice Facebook widget and I regularly use the camera, the voice recorder and make notes.

I don’t really see a difference between consumer and business applications for these high end phones. People want to listen to music whilst on the move with work.  Business people take photos (mine are usually for the blog), make recordings and notes (I do it because I can never remember things otherwise), update twitter, pick up mails, VPN into the office network etc etc etc.

At Timico there is an increasing demand for the iPhone from our business customers. In fact I think that consumer technology has outpaced what is provided specifically for business use so it makes sense that business people want to use consumer tools.

The iPad is not currently a business tool but that type of device will soon be used by business for all sorts of mobility applications.  Whether the Apple device specifically is it will depend on the applications that reside on it – I suspect not.

It is all going to be highly reliant on connectivity, and battery life, and cost, and functionality, and ease of use, and I’m sure the list goes on…  Anyway all that stemmed from the battery running out on my N97 – streams of thought:)

PS the N97 is the best phone I have had so far.

Categories
broadband Business End User internet

Broadband ISP Life: #Microsoft Update Meets #WorldCup

The broadband ISP industry woke up yesterday morning to a spike on their collective networks. I had people down to my office asking whether the World Cup had started a new trend in online TV watching. It undoubtedly reinforces the trend but this time the bandwidth rush was due to a Microsoft Update and not the football.

The football is starting to have an effect though – viewing figures during the opening ceremony were up around 30% over normal video watching. This didn’t have any ill effects on the quality of the experience at least at my end.

30 minutes into the opening game between the Hosts South Africa the score remains nil nil and the video traffic has grown by about 60% above the norm.  This is not as many people as were watching the shennanigans the day after the general election (although it almost is).  But this is not England playing here…

Just to remind readers the concern is that online viewing is going to flood the internet and affect regular users. Warnings have been issued by many ISPs and content providers. Looks like our pipes are ok at the moment although as predicted we have hit a record high in terms of bandwidth usage. If you are making a VoIP call or sending email etc you should still be fine.

You do wonder at Microsoft’s timing though, releasing an update just before the biggest demand event the internet will have seen to date. I guess there are geeks everywhere.  Football? What’s football?

Categories
Archived Business

Timico’s #WorldCup Wallpaper

I walked in this morning to find that the wallpaper in the office had changed overnight. Being Welsh and with no real interest in the football World Cup other than the fact that I have drawn Chile in the office sweepstake it took me a bit by surprise. Having said that everyone is excited and the whole tournament (at this early stage before anyone has been knocked out) has lifted everyone’s spirits.

The video below is a quick scan around the office to show off the decor. The bit at the beginning is where the Network Operations team sits. Note no flags here.  They are all uber-geeks who care only about tech stuff and are only vaguely aware that there is a sport called football. They will still celebrate a win with everybody though.  Work hard and play hard.

Categories
Business charitable

Timico Golf Team finishes in top 4 of Stroke Association fundraiser

Great day out with KCOM yesterday at their annual Charity Golf day at Forest Pines.

The weather didn’t put us off and the company (Steve, Steve and Chris) was great. The Timico team came in fourth, which considering I had probably the worst game of my life, was a credit to the others. I did win an umbrella in the raffle.

The charity being supported was The Stroke Association which is a very valued customer of Timico.

Photographed below are the team with the Pines as a backdrop. I can recommend the course although it is amusing to note that online the club announces itself as being “near Brigg” whereas in reality it is “near Scunthorpe”. Maybe of interest is the fact that down the road is Holme Hall Golf Club which, unless I’m very much mistaken, is where Tony Jacklin started his career. End of travel agent spiel.

from left to right Steve, Tref, Chris and Steve
from left to right Steve, Tref, Chris and Steve
Categories
internet surveillance & privacy

#englandfootball #WorldCup #HDvideo demand poses big questions for ISPs #DEAct #finalthirdfirst

Timico’s video traffic grew by around 30% when England were playing their pre tournament “friendly” football match in South Africa yesterday.

ISPs have been speculating as to what might happen during the tournament itself and especially on June 23rd which is England’s first midweek daytime match. At the recent LINX meeting in London it was suggested that the BBC is

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Categories
Business internet

ISPA Awards Internet Villain and Internet Hero Finalists Announced

ISPA, the Internet Service Providers’ Association, has announced the finalists for the 2010 Internet Hero and Internet Villain awards. Among the finalists are Lords Mandelson and Clement Jones, Tom Watson MP and the campaigning group 38 Degrees.

The highly-prized Internet Hero award is bestowed upon an organisation or individual who has made a significant

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Categories
Business competitions

Carrot cake competition – we have a winner

I am very pleased to announce that Timico Tech Support Engineer Faye Hemingway has won the First Annual Carrot Cake Bake-off. All entries were of a very high standard with Highly Commended Certificates being awarded to Sian Steen, Verity Rushby and the Will Curtis/Fiona Dickinson  team.

Pictured below is me congratulating Faye on her success and also the judges at work.

Faye Hemingway - winner of the Timico carrot cake competition
Faye Hemingway – winner of the Timico carrot cake competition

Thanks to everyone who took part.  The entries were sold off after the competition with the proceeds going to a local charity.

judging the Timico carrot cake competition
judging the Timico carrot cake competition
Categories
Business internet Regs

EU goes bananas – food safety tech to be used to catch paedophiles and sex offenders?

I had to stare at this for a bit to understand it. In a Written Declaration the European Parliament has called on the Member States to coordinate a European early warning system involving their public authorities, based on the existing system for food safety, as a means of tackling paedophilia and sex offending.

They are also talking about applying the Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24/EC) to search engines.

Continue reading “EU goes bananas – food safety tech to be used to catch paedophiles and sex offenders?”
Categories
broadband Business internet

The BT Broadband Interviews – Part 5 – Future Capabilities

Final part of an interview recorded for BT for their FTTC launch.

Categories
broadband Business internet

The BT Broadband Interviews – part 4 – Future Demand

Part 4 of an interview recorded for BT for their FTTC launch.

Categories
Business competitions

Announcing The Timico Carrot Cake Cook-off

Announcing the Timico Carrot Cake Competition. Entries need to be submitted to me during Monday morning. Judging will take place at 1pm on Monday in the Tech area on the first floor. Entry is free.

The cake must have been baked by the entrant who must in turn be a Timico employee (apologies to readers re this – if there is sufficient demand I will conduct an “Open Carrot Cake Competition” at a later date).  Fake entries from M&S etc will result in naming and shaming of the entrant.

The winner will be awarded the title of Timico Carrot Cake Cook of the Year 2010 and will receive vouchers entitling them to 1 year’s unlimited viewing of Trefor.net.

Judging will be by a top panel of gastronomes renowned for their carrot cake tasting skills. For security purposes the names of the judges will not be revealed until just before the tasting.

Happy baking and good luck to all entrants. Results will be posted here on Monday.  You read it first on trefor.net.

All work and no play…

Categories
Engineer internet

IPv4 down to 6%

I’ve been tracking the run down of the IPv4 address pool. This morning another two /8s have been allocated and the number remaining has dropped to 6% of the total.

Nov 16 2009 10% – dropped through 400,000,000 mark
Jan 20th 9%
Feb 25th 8%
May 10th 7%
June 2nd 6%

I make no comment here other than it is getting peculiarly exciting. We have effectively used up 5% of the address pool in 7 months.

Categories
broadband Business

The BT Broadband Interviews – Part 3 – Drivers

Part 3 of an interview recorded for BT for their FTTC launch