Author: Trefor Davies

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

Video streaming is going to be a mix of technical and commercial problems

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 17 August, 2009
No Comments on Video streaming is going to be a mix of technical and commercial problems

Interesting talk at Linx66 by Giles Heron, Principal Network Architect for 21CN at BT. I’m not going into it all but towards the end he discussed video streaming on the network and ways that this might be made more efficient.

Whilst ISPs and network operators take on the challenge of managing the growth in video streaming I think there is just as big an issue coming along in respect of the commercial and regulatory aspects.

The time is not far off, I believe, where people will stop buying purpose built boxes and rely purely on their internet connection for their TV watching. My kids already do it. The advent of FTTC is going to accelerate this. If you watch TV over the internet the rule is in the UK that you are supposed to have a TV license. This is not currently policed as far as I can see and it is difficult to do so. Last night someone in the family was playing a game on our TV so I watched Usain Bolt do his stuff on my laptop.

It will not be long before the BBC will start seeing its license revenue take start to decline (maybe it already is) which is going to prompt a very high profile crisis. We are going to start getting the same debate re TV watching as we have been having with music piracy – who is going to police it?

The alternative is that the BBC will have to move to a pay as you go model for iPlayer watching.

Well done to Usain by the way if you are reading this. Very good 🙂

Tags BBC licensing, iplayer, music piracy, online TV watching, Usain Bolt

datacentre Engineer peering

Interexion talk on green datacentres at Linx66

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 17 August, 2009
No Comments on Interexion talk on green datacentres at Linx66

Some interesting talks at the today’s Linx66 sessions at Goodenough College in London. Lex Coors, VP of international datacentre operator Interexion discussed the green datacentre. One of the slides that caught my attention related to best practice in how end users can keep their power consumption to a minimum.

Most of these are pretty obvious but worth reproducing here with the percentages being the potential efficiency gain:

eliminate comatose servers 10 – 25%
virtualise 25 – 30%
upgrade older equipment 10 – 20%
reduce demand for older equipment 10 – 20%
introduce greener more efficient servers 10 – 20%

If you add that lot up you potentially get more than 100% but it does give people a feel for where their efficiency savings and therefore cost savings can be made.

The original source was McKinsey and the Uptime Institute (2008).

Tags green datacentre, Interexion, Linx66, McKinsey, UpTime Institute

Business internet

Bandwidth Bandits

Internet bandwidth use is continually on the up and is further stimulated each time we roll out faster broadband services.

As the UK ISP community lines itself up to offer 40Mbps broadband based on BT’s Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) proposition it is worth looking at what services and applications businesses are going to use that will take advantage of the increased speeds.

~~I’m going to start a Bandwidth Bandit thread on trefor.net.~~ A Bandwidth Bandit is an application that uses lots of bandwidth. Deleted in the great category cull of February 2014 🙂

So what do I hear you ask? The point is that it is easy to look at the consumer world and see how someone sitting at home watching online TV might benefit from the access speeds supported by FTTC. Full screen, HD for example. However this isn’t going to turn on a business.

The owner of a business is more likely to say “I don’t want to promote TV watching on my company’s internet connection because it will distract staff from their job”.

Every time I look at the drivers for faster internet access the industry has always come up with the same story – better file transfers and better quality video. Now the use of video has still not really taken off in business, other than the occasional educational stream coming from someone’s website.

So I want to take a look at the bandwidth needs of different applications and see whether faster broadband is really going to facilitate a change in the way businesses work. I guess the biggest enabler is quite likely to be faster uplink. FTTC will in theory support “up to” 5Mbps.

Posts are going to appear on this subject from time to time over the next few weeks. In the meantime if anyone wants to contribute or point me towards material that is likely to add value here please feel free to do so.

As a footnote a business typically uses twice as much bandwidth per broadband connection that a consumer despite the impression one might get from some areas of industry that all consumers do is sit on their broadband connections downloading music and video. Apart from the fact that the business ADSL is more likely to have more people sat behind it using accessing the internet it must also mean that there are an increasing number of applications out there wanting the bandwidth.

Tags bandwidth bandit

broadband Business internet

The European Commission has Issued its Digital Competitiveness Report

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 14 August, 2009
No Comments on The European Commission has Issued its Digital Competitiveness Report

The European Commission is claiming the credit for increasing internet usage in Europe. In its Digital Competitiveness Report, published a few days ago, it said “the number of regular internet users has increased from 43% in 2005 to 56% in 2008”. Apparently it is all down to it’s i2010 Strategy formulated in 2005.

Fair play to them, I say. Next time someone tells me that YouTube, Facebook, myspace, iPlayer et al are responsible for increased internet usage I will know how to respond 🙂

The report also goes on to say that “the market for mobile phones has exceeded 100% penetration — increasing from 84% of the EU population in 2004 to 119% in 2009. This makes Europe the world leader in mobile penetration, as the rates in the US and Japan are around 80%.

Consumers spend more time talking and texting at prices at least 34.5% less than in 2004, including a 70% drop in roaming charges since 2005.”

At least it is fair to give the EC the credit for the drop in roaming charges. It does amuse me, however, to think that you can have over 100% market penetration. I know this means people have two phones but it doesn’t quite sound right does it?

Tags Digital Competitiveness Report, European Commission

broadband Business internet Regs

Digital Britain Broadband Implementation Plan

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 13 August, 2009
No Comments on Digital Britain Broadband Implementation Plan

Digital Britain publishes 18 headline projects, evokes thoughts of Russian WWI mobilisation plan.

You will all be interested to know that the Government has published its Digital Britain broadband implementation plan. It’s a headline set of actions that reminds me of why I am not a civil servant. It makes me think of the Russian mobilisation plan of the first world war for some reason.

Anyway, the Digital Britain broadband implementation plan contains 18 headline projects including a catch all called “Other Relevant Activity”. Two of them are ones I have been commenting on relating to Next Generation Broadband and Illegal File Sharing.

I just noticed that the timeframe given for 90% penetration of Next Gen broadband access in the UK is 2017. This is so far into the future in in internet terms as to not matter. I imagine they will have invented teleporting by then which would be ideal for rural dwellers but of course it won’t be availabe to them! Meanwhile I can envisage a Government celebration party being held to celebrate the 90th percent being hit for what will by then be ultra slow broadband.

Also of interest is the presence of Martha Lane Fox on the Programme Board.

Tags Digital Britain implementation plan, Martha Lane Fox, Next Generation broadband

End User Regs surveillance & privacy

Big Brother is watching you

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 13 August, 2009
No Comments on Big Brother is watching you

Imagine a world where individual sales people could see how many customer contacts they take and make, be it mobile, desk phone or email. Then they compare their performance with their peers and can see how much sales revenue they each generate.

An underperforming sales person is going to either buck up their act or realise the writing is on the wall. That person’s manager can also see the same information, how much time is spent making personal calls, calls to colleagues or calls to customers.

Who’d be a salesman eh? The fact is that this type of management information isn’t typically available, or at least not easily so and certainly not in real time. If it was then companies would be able to use the information save communications costs and to optimise the effectiveness of their commercial teams.

I just saw a demo of an online product called the “Comms Dashboard” which integrates with a company’s CRM package. Every time a registered user makes a call it is logged on the “dashboard” and a picture is built up of an individual’s spend and activity levels.

This might sound a bit Big Brotherish but I doubt that the owner of a business cares if it is going to improve the bottom line, especially in this day and age. The Comms Dashboard integrates with pretty much any CRM system as long as the company database is available and doesn’t care how many users are registered so it can be used by businesses small or large.

The demo I saw was provided by Terence Long, CEO of RTP Solutions. I have to hold my hand up here and tell you that Terry Long has been a successful business partner of Timico almost since we started the company. Notwithstanding that the Comms Dashboard does represent innovation that will make the difference when business is difficult to come by – both for RTP Solutions and for their customers.

Since the product went live their clients have seen a reduction of over 30% of minutes usage with very little management intervention. Once users are aware of the system they manage their own costs. Result!

Check out their website if you want to see more but in the meantime here is a screenshot.

Tags Comms Dashboard, CRM, RTP Solutions

Business internet

How the Internet can help you through the credit crunch

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 10 August, 2009
No Comments on How the Internet can help you through the credit crunch

Article written by yours truly for this month’s Federation of Small Businesses “Business Network” magazine, reproduced herein case you didn’t get your copy.

The last year has been a tough one if you are in business in the UK and preservation of cash has been foremost in the minds of most managers. Companies that emerge successfully at the other end of the downturn will be not only be those that have saved costs but also those nimble enough to position themselves for growth during the new cycle.

Often this means adopting new technology that can improve efficiency as well as saving money. In today’s terms this means moving towards being an “online” business. This doesn’t just mean having an attractive website. It means moving some of the functions of your business into the internet “cloud” thereby reducing costs and increasing productivity.

Typically this also involves moving to a subscription based model with low capital outlay and the ability to scale up or down as your business needs it. The vast majority of applications needed by business today are available either free or via a rental model on the internet.

VoIP
Voice over Internet Protocol, as the name suggests, makes use of internet technology to make phone calls rather than the old fashioned telephone network. No longer an emerging technology VoIP has gone mainstream in a big way and is now used by tens of thousands of businesses in the UK.

During the recession sales of office phone systems have plummeted. People have just stopped buying. Businesses have instead been turning to “hosted VoIP” solutions.

Hosted VoIP is where the phone system is held remotely, typically at a secure datacenter in London’s Docklands. Instead of buying a box to sit in the corner of your office you just rent the service off an Internet Telephony Service Provider, of which there are over 100 now in the UK. All a small business needs is a broadband connection.

Hosted VoIP allows a business the flexibility to grow without having to invest in expensive systems. They are also ideal for companies with home workers (eg sales people) or people who like to work from home sometimes which, with today’s environmental concerns and the cost of fuel, is increasingly becoming a trend. A home worker gets the same service as if he was in the office and calls between extensions are free wherever they are.

eMail
eMail was one of the first internet applications to be adopted by business. Historically for small businesses basic email was provided by their Internet Service Provider. Big business bought its own, highly functional email system, normally Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Notes.

Nowadays this differentiator has disappeared. With hosted Exchange and Hosted Blackberry even one man bands can now have the same high end email and mobile email function as the biggest corporation.

If you don’t want to pay anything and provided you don’t want to use your own company domain name you can also use free email and calendar services such as those provided by Google et al.

Web based marketing
Web based marketing, as stated earlier, no longer means putting up a website and counting the vists. It must encompass many strands including lead generation and online ordering, (ie eCommerce).

Companies would also do well to harness the power of new Web2.0 facilities such as Facebook and Twitter. Large companies employ staff just to manage the company’s Facebook and Twitter presence. Dell, for example, is proactive in seeking out people commenting, good and bad, on the company’s products and services. Dell contacts the complainants and find out how they could improve the customer experience.

This needn’t mean employing dedicated staff. It might means as little as setting up a Facebook page to advertise a specific product or service.

There are some very high profile business successes where Facebook has been used to market a product. Animoto, for example, was a startup offering an unique photo album service. Customers upload their photos and Animoto’s system sets them to music in a slide show that is totally different for every customer.

Animoto used Amazon’s cloud computing service to host their system. Within 48 hours of advertising their service on Facebook the rush of new customers meant that they had to scale up their use of Amazon’s cloud based “virtual” computers from 30 machines to 4,000.

Cloud computing
This use of the internet by what was a small business meant that Animoto could grow their system without having to make the risky capital investment up front. The same rationale can be applied to storing your company’s vital data. Many members of the FSB will be too small to have their own IT resource. Subscribing to an online backup service can bring huge peace of mind. The ability to quickly recover data from a crashed PC could make or break a business.

Whatever tactics you employ to survive the credit crunch it is clear that the internet should have a big part to play in your plans.

Tags Business Network Magazine, Federation of Small Businesses

Business internet ofcom Regs

Ofcom report indicates reduction in music downloading

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 7 August, 2009
No Comments on Ofcom report indicates reduction in music downloading

The Communications Market Report published by Ofcom yesterday has thrown up some interesting stats in subject areas regularly commented on in this blog.

For example Ofcom says that there is an overall reduction in the number of people downloading music and videos. This overall decrease is only 1% but the number is marked in certain age groups. 15 – 24 year olds are downloading 8% fewer files and the maturer 25 – 44 age group is at it 5% less.

Now there is nothing to say that all these downloads are against the law but this must surely point to an overall reduction in illegal P2P filesharing which must in large part be down to all the high profile activity in this space of Feargal Sharkey and UK music. Any comment Feargal?

There is an awful lot of work left to be done in this area and it is going to be the subject of discussion for some years to come. Ofcom’s chart purloined below – click twice to get a better res view.

Note downloading has increased amongst older folks. One imagines this age group is less likelyto illegally fileshare. Also note increase in uploading content. This is going to be a driver for Next Gen broadband as currently being rolled out by Virgin and trialled by BT.

Tags Feargal Sharkey, Ofcom, P2P filesharing

Business internet net neutrality voip

Net neutrality, Skype and Commissioner Reding

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 6 August, 2009
No Comments on Net neutrality, Skype and Commissioner Reding

Continuing with the theme of reports I’ve been reading the EuroISPA report that comes across my desk every month. Like it or not when the EC magisterially waves its authoritative hand we do feel the ripples in the UK.

This month in response to a parliamentary question on T-Mobile blocking Skype over broadband networks in Germany, Commissioner Reding, interestingly, referred to the provision of the Universal Directive, namely art. 2(3), whereby National Regulatory Authorities are empowered to intervene by setting minimum quality of service requirements for network transmission services, “as an additional safeguard in instances where competitive forces alone, are not enough to safeguard the openness of the Internet”.

If you’re like me your mind goes blank when you read all this regulatory jargon. However with this one we need to note that in the pursuit of net neutrality, which as a consumer I’m all for, setting minimum quality of service levels requirements on ISPs is going to cost money. Skype should not be blocked by anyone but neither should ISPs be obliged to prioritise Skype traffic without someone footing the bill.

By the way you can use Skype to your heart’s content on the Timico network though most of our business VoIP customers chose to use our own VoIP service.

Tags Commissioner Reding, Germany, net neutrality, Parliament, Skype, T Mobile

Business ofcom Regs voip

Ofcom today published its annual Communications Market Report

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 6 August, 2009
No Comments on Ofcom today published its annual Communications Market Report

Ofcom today published its annual Communications Market Report. At 334 pages long it is a bit of a read but actually, at least if you are in the industry, it is very much worth ploughing through it. It usually produces lots of interesting material to comment about so I’m probably going to pick and chose a few subjects dear to my heart over the next few days.

Last year the industry had cause to complain big time regarding Ofcom’s measurement of the growth of the VoIP market. In fact I met with the regulator to discuss this very subject earlier in the summer.

This year the report highlights the increasing popularity of VoIP, with evidence showing a growing awareness and take up of the service. According to the research, the number of UK adults using VoIP in Q1 2009 has risen to 12% and 60% of UK adults claim to know about VoIP.

The report does accept that most UK adults do not use the service citing reasons such as insufficient understanding on how it’s used, quality of service issues and competition from low-priced fixed and mobile telecoms services. However Ofcom stresses that many users are unlikely to realise that they are using VoIP technology, e.g. the BT home hub phone, and therefore usage is likely to be higher than the report suggests.

The reports also highlights a decline in the total number of UK fixed lines which is attributed to greater availability of alternative forms of communication including VoIP. The use of VoIP was also one reason attributed to the growth in business voice call volumes by 2.1% in 2008 to 89.1 billion minutes.

It is clear from the report that Ofcom are still unable to obtain genuine statistics of VoIP take-up from their current market research but at least it is progress over last year.

More when the day job allows.

Tags Communications Market Report 2009, Ofcom

broadband Business

Post Office Tower

I have to extend my thanks to BT who were my hosts atop the BT Tower in London yesterday. It was a beautiful afternoon with great visibility of all of London’s well known landmarks.

It is also a stunning place for corporate hospitality and the food was as good as you would find in any top restaurant. We took some important PWAN customers along and had a very useful working lunch. What’s more we had it for our own exclusive use!

Members of the public are not allowed up these days so one of the few ways you can get there is by becoming a Timico customer ! 🙂 .

Special thanks go to Victoria Bradley at BT Wholesale who is a class apart as an account manager.

Tags BT Wholesale, Post Office Tower

Business internet

Situations vacant

I’m looking at taking on a product manager with a background in the ISP industry. This is part of Timico’s evolution as a communications provider where our focus is increasingly on managed internet services. This could be a job for a literate engineer looking to expand their horizons into the business side of things. I’m also looking to expand our project management team.

If you fancy a chat about this drop me a line at Timico or give me a ring.

Tags ISP product manager, job vacancies

broadband Business internet Regs

Stephen Timms MP to Become the New Communications Minister

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 4 August, 2009
3 Comments on Stephen Timms MP to Become the New Communications Minister

Stephen Timms MP Digital Britain broadband

Stephen Timms brings significant telecommunications industry experience to his new Communications Minister role.

I understand that Rt Hon Stephen Timms MP is set to become the new Communications Minister, with responsibility for taking forward the recommendations of the Digital Britain broadband review. The position had been vacated when Lord Carter stepped down following the publication of the Review. It is likely that the role will change slightly, given that Mr Timms will sit jointly across the Department for Business and the Treasury, whereas Lord Carter’s position sat jointly across the Department for Business and the DCMS.

A former Internet Hero at the ISPAs, Stephen Timms brings significant experience to the role having worked in the telecommunications industry before entering Parliament and having previously served as a Minister with responsibility for e-Commerce at the DTI and BERR.

Whether the treasury connection will have any relevance remains to be seen. I see one of the biggest challenges for this Government is going to be how it faces up to the need to invest massively in the Next Generation Access network (ie fibre).

Whilst I was on holiday I visited my in laws in Liverpool. Grandad had saved me an article from the local paper describing the outcry amongst Liverpudlian councillors when they found that BT’s initial £1,5m investment in Fibre To The Cabinet was not going to be gracing their fair city with it’s presence whilst favouring local rivals Manchester. Nonsense I cried and reached for my BT FTTC broadband rollout map (never go anywhere without it).

To my surprise, he was right. All the dots identifying the initial (spring 2010) roll out sites come no closer than Altrincham. The good burghers of Liverpool should not feel that they have been singled out, because there will be huge swathes of the UK left out in the high speed broadband cold. I don’t for a moment blame BT, although I’m sure that competition from Virgin will in due course give them a bit of a prod in the right direction.

This is why I say that the Government has a lot to do in this space, and why I wish Stephen Timms every success in his new role.

Tags BERR, BT, Communications Minister, DCMS, Digital Britain, DTI, FTTC, Liverpool, Manchester, Stephen Timms

Business Cloud storage backup & dr

Storage trends

I thought it would be interesting to look at storage requirement trends. This isn’t based on anything scientific other than a look at my own personal photo storage needs over the last few years.

The first 2009 datapoint is August 2nd and the second is an extrapolation to year end. I don’t know what happened to the file sizes in 2007. There is otherwise a trend to be seen.

It would be interesting to see whether anyone else has similar, not necessarily scientific, data to share. If you email me at tref at trefor.net or leave a comment I’ll try and compile the results, assuming there are any.

Tags storage growth

Business travel

Out of office

My out off office is now officially on as I take the family away for annual leave in the sunny Isle of Man.

During this time it is unlikely that I will be writing posts but you can keep up with me on facebook if you want to.

PS I know that I have only just had a week in South Africa playing rugby. That wasn’t a holiday. It was a life enriching experience that boys sometimes just have to do.

Tags out of office

Engineer internet spam

Anti spam best practice

You may have noted the spam theme of my posts this week. This is because we are in the process of upgrading our anti spam capabilities. The management of spam is a hugely complex process and involves many factors contributing to a scorecard against which an email is rated.

There is a general set of principles that the industry could apply that would make it a lot harder for spammers. Unfortunately many ISPs seem to the fairly lenient with their customers about how they set up their email services and are prepared to accept mail from poorly configured mail servers.

For example most spam comes from compromised Windows computers at residential or business premises. When a host connects, ie when a mail is being set up for sending, it should perform a HELO with it’s fully qualified domain name (FQDN) as specified in RFCs (industry standards or standards in waiting). The sender sometimes lies and presents a fake or incorrect HELO string, which can be used to judge the validity of the sending server. The string given at HELO time should have forward and reverse DNS that matches.

Additionally, the reverse DNS of the sending host could be considered. If there is no reverse DNS, it’s very unlikely that the mail is legitimate, and should be rejected. If the reverse DNS makes it clear that the sending host is within a DSL pool, ie at the user premises at the end of an ADSL line rather than an ISP’s mail server, this could also be taken into consideration when it comes to scoring.

A genuine Reverse DNS might look like mail.timico.net whereas a corresponding ADSL based DNS, (and therefore likely to be the source of spam), would be xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.adsl.timico.net where the x’s represent the ip address.

Another technique in the fight against spam is to rate limit emails from users. In other words to apply a policy controlling a maximum number of emails an individual can send in a day. A rate limit for a residential user might be 200 mails a day for example. It is unlikely that the residential user will send more than 10 or 20 mails in a day. A compromised machine may, however, send thousands in the same time period. The rate limit would prevent this.

Customers with a genuine need to send more emails than the limit can easily be accommodated. The limit is there to protect the user rather than to stop them sending emails. The spam being sent would normally be caught here anyway but this technique does at least minimize the load on spam filters.

The factors taken into consideration in spam scoring systems are not normally made public domain because to do so would just help spammers.

Tags anti spam, best practice, reverse DNS

Engineer spam

More spam

As an update from yesterday’s post the botnet attacks are getting even more frequent. I’ll post some notes tomorrow on best practice for ISPs contending with spam. You can see the increase in frequency and intensity over yesterday. Some crook somewhere has obviously decided on a new “marketing campaign”.

Tags botnets, spam

Engineer internet spam

Spam attacks

I sometimes sit and watch SPAM attacks coming in on our mail servers. ISPs are constantly having to ward off spam. It is like being in a cyber war. What is mind boggling is that sheer volume. The chart below shows unwanted mail below the x axis and legitimate stuff above.

You can barely make out the legitimate mail because in the scale it is dwarfed by the spam. It is also interesting to observe that the attacks come in waves. You can see the major incoming waves on Sunday evening followed by periodic smaller attacks which appear to be the work of botnets.

This spam is of course not passed on to our customers who pay us for a premium service. You can zoom in by clicking a couple of times on the picture.

Tags spam

Business internet

ISPA wins award for raising industry standards

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 9 July, 2009
No Comments on ISPA wins award for raising industry standards

The Internet Services Provider Association has been announced as the winner of Nominet’s Best Practice Awards in the Raising Industry Standards category. The awards recognise organisations that have embraced the challenge of making the Internet a secure, open, accessible and diverse experience for all.

The ‘Raising Industry Standards’ category honours organisations that promote high standards of ethics in business, deliver an exceptional standard of customer service to online customers, promote Corporate Social Responsibility within the Internet industry and take a leading role in developing consumer confidence in the Internet.

ISPA was able to prove that it has worked with members to ensure high standards through adherence to the mandatory Code of Practice and voluntary Best Practice documents. ISPA further cited its cooperation with Government in promoting effective self-regulation and its third party dispute resolution service for consumers as examples of raising standards in the sector.

I pinched that spiel from the ISPA website but I have to say I am proud to be involved with this activity. The ISPA is a very well run professional trade association which does a great deal of good work for the industry.

Nominet, for those of you who have never registered your own .uk domain name, manages all the UK’s domain names(eg .co.uk, .org.uk). Last time I looked there were around 8 million of these. The day will come where everyone will have their own domain name. If anyone is interested, in my will in I am leaving trefor.net to my 9 year old. Funnily enough at this time he isn’t quite sure that this is a good thing. He will come around to my view in time.

Tags ISPA, Nominet

Business scams

Phorm fails

I read on Monday that BT had abandoned Phorm. I didn’t consider this worth commenting on. Today I see that Talk Talk has also dropped the behavioural advertising company.

From a consumer’s perspective I say hooray. As an ISP I don’t have a big enough business to make the Phorm business model work so I haven’t had the moral dilemma myself. Apparently BT has said it has nothing to do with the furore over privacy rights but I doubt that anyone believes this.

Phorm is now having to say that it is concentrating on faster moving markets such as Korea and talks about live trials with Korea Telecom. All I can say is that for it to work Korea Telecom has to have a thicker skin than any western based ISP. Perhaps there isn’t the same privacy rights activity in Asia.

Tags BT, Korea Telecom, Phorm, TalkTalk

Business events

ISPA council meeting, AGM and Awards do

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 8 July, 2009
1 Comment on ISPA council meeting, AGM and Awards do

Busy day tomorrow so I thought I’d get this post in today because I certainly won’t be writing anything during the ISPA Awards.

At 10am I have an ISPA council meeting, followed by the AGM at 12.15 and the annual ISPA Awards bash in the evening. I haven’t been to this event before so I am looking forward to it, especially as Timico is a finalist in the “Best Business Customer Service” category.

I’ll let you know how we get on plus any publishable/non-incriminating photos from the night.

It’s also the Nominet AGM today so if I have any feedback from that I’ll let you know.

Tags AGM, awards, council, ISPA, Nominet

broadband Business

Broadband Network Traffic Peaks

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 6 July, 2009
No Comments on Broadband Network Traffic Peaks

I have occasionally written posts concerning the rise in internet traffic when there have been major world events. Of course this included last week’s Wimbledon antics.

I thought it would be interesting for people to see an overlay in broadband network traffic week on week to see what a “normal” week would look like compared to a high traffic week.

The chart below shows last week’s Wimbledon peak traffic profile in the slightly lighter grey compared with the previous week’s.

It’s a bit dark but if you click on the image a couple of times you should get a large enough view to see that when “our Andy” took to the court on Friday the traffic shot up by 30% compared to the same time last week.

The purple line at the botton represents an old low capacity 155Mbps BT Central pipe that is being decommissioned next month. These older pipes struggle to cope with high network demand. The 155 is being replaced with more 622 capacity.

Tags Andy Murray, Andy Roddick, network traffic peaks, Wimbledon

Business travel

40 years since 1st moon landing

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 3 July, 2009
No Comments on 40 years since 1st moon landing

As I drove in to work this morning I heard a BBC Radio 4 interview with 2nd man on the moon Buzz Aldrin. Part of it included playback of the telephone conversation the astronauts had with President Richard Nixon who emphasised that he was using the telephone in the Oval Office to make the call. Of course this was a technological marvel at the time.

I actually met Buzz Aldrin 15 years ago on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the moon landings. What struck me was the high calibre of everyone involved with the Apollo missions.

The technology they used was so basic that the astronauts had to pilot the spacecraft manually. None of this onboard guidance computer stuff. In fact my Nokia phone now has much more computing power than did the whole mission to the moon.

Buzz described to me the way that they flew the lunar landing craft by hand across the moon’s surface until they spotted somewhere suitable to land. The whole mission was balanced on a knife edge as the lander only had 40 seconds of fuel left before they had to abort the landing. Fortunately, as we now all know, they spotted a landing spot and took it down.

The missions to the moon were the catalyst that set in train the whole semiconductor industry and brought about the technological revolution that is still going on today. One small step for man, one massive leap for technology.

I had my photo taken with Buzz at that event 15 years ago. If I can find it I’ll scan it in and post it here. I wonder if he remembers me ?:-)

Tags Apollo 11, Buzz Aldrin, moon landings

broadband Business internet

Andy Murray Drives Broadband Network to a New High

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 2 July, 2009
1 Comment on Andy Murray Drives Broadband Network to a New High

Our broadband network usage hit a new high yesterday as Andy Murray wallopped Juan Carlos Ferrero in straight sets at Wimbledon. The peak remained at a constant high between 4 and 5pm, at which point presumably everyone left the office and watched it at home because the network traffic dropped right off.

My understanding is that whilst an ISP’s network might well have been able to cope with the added traffic levels some problems were caused at local exchange level where virtual paths were seeing congestion. The virtual path is the backhaul from exchange into the BT network and on to the internet, and in this case to the BBC website.

BT’s new 21CN network should be better placed to withstand this sort of traffic burst.

Expect another peak when “our Andy” plays in the semi final. I feel as if I have known him all my life :-).

Tags Andy Murray, BT, Wimbledon

Business internet

Federer at the net attracts on net audience

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 22 June, 2009
No Comments on Federer at the net attracts on net audience

Here we go again. Wimbledon. I never used to be a Wimbledon watcher but since taking my tennis playing son to see the tournament last year (Centre Court, Murray, Nadal, Venus Williams) I have changed my attitude.

This year I’m watching it from the office. The web traffic that is. At 13.00 hrs our network usage shot up and looking at it it is a mix of video streams that is making it happen. The same happened during Obama’s inaugural speech, this year’s budget speech (why?!) and last summer’s Olympics.

The effect is a bit like half time at an FA Cup Final when half the country gets up to make a cup of tea. The other half of course gets up to go to the fridge to get another beer. Those kettles all going on at the same time ramps up the demand on the electricity network just like Roger Federer does for the internet.

I’m not really a football fan myself. Come on Andy Murray!

Tags Andy Murray, FA Cup Final, Roger Federer, Wimbledon

datacentre Engineer

It’s all about wiring

Following my post on our fibre installation earlier in June The build of our new datacentre module in Newark continues.

Datacentres, whilst giving the appearance of being high tech, are all about wiring and plumbing. So I’m getting in the cable monkeys and plumbers.

Couple of photos below give you a feel for part of the process. Underfloor power connections to each rack space and a coil of fibre that might look innocuous but will carry the lifeblood of the datacentre, ie the data itself.

It makes me think of the pony express, or the old stage post mail system and how things have changed. I’m getting romantic in my old age.

Of course it will be tidied up a bit before we open for business.

Tags Newark Datacentre

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