Category: Net

connectivity and networking posts – both fixed and mobile, fast and slow

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End User internet

Luxury living and the shape of things to come – laptops at the dinner table #digitalbritain

This is what I call luxury living though I’m sure many will disagree. I’m sat at the dinner table indulging in tortilla chips and dips with my two eldest.  Mum and the other two are away (at Chester Zoo).

The luxury bit, apart from the company of the kids, is the involvement of laptops at the table.  There is plenty of space with the others away :-).  We are actually talking to each other although we are also engrossed elsewhere, in my case writing blog posts.

And before anyone starts calling me a bad dad I gave them total freedom in choice of dinner – Quesadillas on this occasion. Long live Tex Mex and long live the internet!

PS gives another slant on eating off your laptop – iPlayer dinner anyone?

Categories
Business internet ofcom Regs

Royal Assent for Digital Economy Bill – we now need to move onto the Code of Practice for damage limitation #debill

The Queen nodded the Digital Economy Bill through last night, in keeping with her custom and practice. It seems that MPs have been getting above their station in taking a similar approach to get it passed into Law (my words not Her Majesty’s). 

It would appear that Stephen Timms has offered via twitter to arrange a session between ISPs and the Rights Holders:

“#DEBill Good dialogue, music/film people & Internet people, opposing views,could help find common ground. Much needed. Anyone interested?”

Continue reading “Royal Assent for Digital Economy Bill – we now need to move onto the Code of Practice for damage limitation #debill”
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Business internet Regs

Information overload STOP #timmsguidetoIT #debill Stephen Timms Out of Parliament

We have to STOP.  The information society is grinding life to a halt.  There is so much good content out there on tinternet that I am drowning in it.

It is even becoming harder and harder to write relevant blog posts in a timely manner. Points that I might want to get across, links to useful websites etc etc etc have already been distributed, at the speed of light (or copper or air – we don’t all have fibre – believe it or not!) via twitter (mostly) and Facebook.

Continue reading “Information overload STOP #timmsguidetoIT #debill Stephen Timms Out of Parliament”
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Engineer internet

HD voice workshop London #HDvoice

I’m chairing a High Definition Voice Workshop in London on 27th April if anyone is interested in coming along.

The workshop is being organised by the Internet Telephony Service Providers’ Association and will be held at their premises at 111 Buckingham Palace Road, starting at 2.30.

Continue reading “HD voice workshop London #HDvoice”
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Business internet Regs

Digital Economy Bill will influence voting behaviour #debill #ge2010

Don’t you just love the internet.  Yesterday’s Digital Economy bill non debate has spawned some highly creative responses, which to a large extent goes to show why we should keep the internet free and open.

Did your MP turn up for the debate? – find out on didmympshoupornot.com.

Also some highly illuminating stats on last night’s action can be found here.

Register opposition to the bill here.

I haven’t made my mind up how to vote yet in this Election. It is the hardest decision I have had to make of all the Elections I have voted in.  There is a groundwsell of opinion forming though that people might well vote against the Government that created this mess. This is despite the fact that the opposition by and large seems also hell bent on helping to make it a mess.

My vote will probably stay a secret but it would be interesting to hear others’ views on this.

Categories
broadband Business internet Regs

Rural Broadband: Mixed Messages for Outlying Communities #digitalbritain #ge2010

Rural Broadband Fibre England

In an action (not so packed) Parliamentary session yesterday the Government dropped it’s plans for the 50 pence tax on phone lines. So that’s the money that was going to be used to fund rural broadband access gone then.

On the other hand they also dropped plans to hike tax on cider – so that rural dwellers can continue to drink themselves into oblivion over the fact that they can’t get broadband!  There is a perverse logic in there somewhere.

Continue reading “Rural Broadband: Mixed Messages for Outlying Communities #digitalbritain #ge2010”
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Business internet piracy Regs

Social Networking in action #debill

#debill actually made it to a trending topic on twitter today.  This reflects the huge amount of interest around the country on the subject of the Digital Economy Bill.

I watched it both on iPlayer and via Tweetdeck where I could see real time comments on what was being debated.  MPs inside the chamber were also following twitter – you could see them referring to their mobile phones whilst others were speaking.

I’ve actually changed my view on twitter since getting involved in #debill.  It is a hugely powerful medium and one that can spread messages globally very quickly.  For example one of my blog posts was retweeted by Jeff Pulver who has somewhere in the region of 355 thousand followers.  If you have a message to get across and push the right buttons twitter is huge.

Interestingly because #debill was a trending topic on twitter, ie one of the top topics being followed by people it also attracted its fair share of spam – people jumping on the bandwagon – notably today by people trying to flog iPad.

We are all still finding our way in this connected world.

PS there can’t have been more than 20 MPs in the house debating such an important subject – democracy in action. It is getting harder and harder to decide which way to vote.

Categories
Business internet ofcom piracy Regs

Stop UK Government From Breaking the Internet on April 6th #DEBill #digitalbritain

As a general principle and in support of the rule of law, nobody involved in the campaign process against the implementation of the Digital Economy Bill (DEB) supports the theft of someone else’s property as is the case when downloading a pirate copy of a music track. However, before we examine the history of the legislation, let’s take a reality check about where we are.

The cat is well and truly out of the bag. The downloading of copyrighted material is now so widespread and with faster and faster broadband and bigger and bigger hard drives it is never going to stop. Infringers will just move on to alternative means – encrypted P2P for example. On this basis all the hard work on the DEB is likely to be a complete waste of time. It is also very difficult to prove who has used a specific broadband connection to indulge in this copyright infringement; what’s more the burden of proof in this bill lies with the accused to prove themselves innocent. This is totally wrong and goes against all the principles of modern UK society.

Continue reading “Stop UK Government From Breaking the Internet on April 6th #DEBill #digitalbritain”
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broadband Engineer internet

Six Million Litres of Water Pumped from BT Paddington Exchange Yesterday

A BT employee has reported through our tech support grapevine that apparently the London Fire Brigade pumped 6 million litres of water from the flooded (and burnt) Burne House Exchange in Paddington yesterday.

Sounds like a self extinguishing fire system to me.

We had a quite a few customers affected by the incident with some still offline at the time of writing.

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broadband Engineer

Fire in Paddington Exchange – Or is it a Flood?

O2 tell us this morning that a flood has taken out the Burne House Paddington telephone exchange in London – they have 115 cell sites down as a result. Apparently fire engines have been seen pumping water out.

Funnily enough The Register is reporting a similar story but this time the Paddington Exchange is down because of a fire!

I suppose they could both be right – pump in water to put out fire – pump water back out afterwards!

It ain’t April 1st until tomorrow so it must be true.

5pm Wednesday – latest news is that the exchange will be down until midday on 2nd April – you heard it first on trefor.net !

Categories
Business internet ofcom piracy Regs

Report from “Bring Democracy to the Digital Economy Bill” reception at Westminster #debill #ldsavenet #digitalbritain

Just got back from the “Bring Democracy to the Digital Economy Bill” reception kindly sponsored by “Consumer Focus”. There was a great speaker line up. My shorthand is non existent but this is pretty much what was said. If not verbatim then it provides the gist and I’m happy to modify and if I have any of it wrong – but I don’t think I have.

Tom Watson MP
Opening remarks. Not against change per se – just against doing it without adequate scrutiny. DEB is a bad law.

John Grogan MP
The probability is that the PM will go to the Queen to seek dissolution of Parliament on the morning of 6th April. This is likely to be before the 2nd reading of the DEB has started in Commons!. There is no precedent for this!

Noted that at a similar event sponsored by BPI 5 or 6 lobbysists claimed ownership to clause 120A. There was clearly a lot of effort being put in. It is reasonable to expect that things are not considered in haste.

Stephen Timms and Jeremy Hunt have apparently agreed to a clause 18 amendment today but word is the Lib Dems are not going to sign up to it.

The process is going to be concertina’d to 1 hour in the Commons and 1 hour in the Lords.

Not many MPs will be around during the wash-up. Most will be out on the campaign trail. It is important to garner as much support as possible against this bill at this last minute. It won’t be end of world if this bill is delayed so that we can have a proper debate.

Jim Killock, Executive Director, Open Rights Group
20k people have written to their MP. 2 k people have emailed Harriet Harman. £12 – £14 k raised in one morning to pay for an advert protesting overt the lack of scrutiny in this bill. MPs should be asking themselves whether this bill is legitimate

Simon Milner, Director of Industrial Policy, BT
BT wants to see reduction in piracy – after all BT sells music online. However the company wants to see that the law is balanced and proportionate. In this case the Government views have been too influenced by the music industry. For example people will be cut off because they haven’t taken suitable steps to stop music piracy. This isn’t right and could be unenforceable in law. Consumers could be left with an unholy mess.

Andrew Heaney, Executive Director of Policy and Regulation, TalkTalk
Used the example of his mother. If one of mum’s neighbours hacked into her broadband connection she could be cut off without being able to resort to legal aid. She would have to prove she has taken reasonable steps to stop it. This would cost her money perhaps a few hundred pounds? This is disgraceful / shameful.

Andrew had spoke with Stephen Timms about this. His reply was “But we have to do something don’t we?”.

Scott Taunton, Managing Director, UTV Media GB
Future of local radio is at stake here. There is not enough time to scrutinise the bill properly. The Secretary of State will have the ability to turn off AM and FM frequencies & move people to DAB. There are 120 m analogue radios around the country. This debate has come late in the day. Up to 120 local radio stations could be left behind in the switch off. DAB was 1st broadcast in 1988 radio technology has moved on to better things. Ofcom records only 3% of population has dissatisfaction with radio so why are we doing this?

(Note I haven’t given the non ISP bits of the bill any thought but it does seem outrageous that the Secretary of State seems to be awarding himself powers left right and centre)

Lord Whitty, Chair, Consumer Focus
Lord Whitty had lost his voice and his place was taken instead by that would be Adam Scorer, Consumer Focus Director of reputation and impact, or short, campaigns.

“This is a wholly unsatisfactory process. The idea that consumer interest is served by ISPs policing by decree is more than a shame in what is otherwise a good DEB.”

To finish off I was told this evening that Stephen Timms and Jeremy Hunt (cons) have apparently agreed to a clause 18 amendment today and that the Lib Dems are not going to sign up to it.

At this point I don’t know which way it is going to swing. Watch this space.

PS both MPs speaking were impressive individuals – you should vote for them.

Categories
Cloud Engineer internet

Flagship MPLS project

I don’t normally go about overtly selling Timico in this blog but sometimes, when the customer is doing it for you in the trade press, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do*.

Flagship Housing is a recent customer of Timico.  We implemented an MPLS network for them. They love it enough to

Continue reading “Flagship MPLS project”
Categories
Engineer internet Regs

Google, deckchairs and Digital Economy Bill #debill

Paid a visit to Google in London on Friday morning. Fascinating offices. Refreshments available in reception whilst you checked yourself in and then breakfast from the breakfast bar afterwards.

I was there to meet Google’s regulatory bod, Luc Delany to discuss the company’s approach to the Digital Economy Bill. Google has a fairly light approach to regulation – the company claims to spend only 10% of what Microsoft spends on lobbying.

The Government, with it’s recent embarrassments, would do well to note that in the USA organisations have to disclose how much they spend on lobbying – down to individual lunches. It would be interesting to see how this mapped out in the UK in respect of the DEB stakeholders.

Of course clause 17 (or is it 18 now?) is the one that concerns Google. That’s the one that potentially gives Peter Mandelson powers to decide which websites are acceptable and which aren’t.

There is a feeling that we have all done everything that can be done on the DEB now, aside from last minute noises. We are now just waiting for judgement day. If the DEB does go ahead in its current form I will say that there is going to be one heck of a stink during and after the election.

I have to say that visiting Google is a pleasure. We played a bit of pool, I picked up an electric guitar and had a strum and spent some time in the surround vision version of Google Earth. It has a name but I can’t remember it. You stand inside a ring of large monitors and move a joystick to guide yourself around the world. Great.

Also chilled out in a deckchair for a bit (in the atrium – under the palm tree) before we both had to move on to other meetings. Life’s a beach.

One thing I didn’t realise is that much of the development of Google mobile operating system, Android, happens right there in the London offices. It made me proud to be a Brit (don’t often say that – I’m normally proud to be Welsh).

Categories
End User internet security social networking

Facebook messages bringing a link to a website with a virus – look out

Just seen a wall post on Facebook from a friend warning of a virus being sent out from his account.  Next minute I got a Direct Message from him with a link in it. Fortunately I had just seen his warning and was able to delete it. 

This is going to be a problem I can see. I wonder what can be done about it?

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Business internet Regs

Budget watching – internet usage grew by 22% during Alistair Darling speech #digitalbritain

Readers might be interested to know that internet usage on the Timico pipes grew by 22% over the same period yesterday as punters went online to watch Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling’s Budget speech.

This is roughly the same growth that we saw during the Olympics and also during last summer’s Ashes cricket tests and the Open golf.

In a sense they are similar events – jeering crowds, cheering crowds etc. I’d rather be watching the sport though.

Anyway he did confirm the 50 pence tax on phone lines.

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broadband Business internet

Superfast Broadband and the FOURTH LAW OF THE INTERNET – It’s All Hype #digitalbritain

Some of you might remember the book “Masers and Lasers; How They Work, What They Do.” (1964, M. Brotherton. The McGraw-Hill Book Company). In my well thumbed copy page 5, talks about laser beams and uses the term “superhighways” for communication.

The January 3, 1983 issue of Newsweek: talked about “…information superhighways being built of fiber-optic cable will link Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D. C. in a 776-mile system on the East Coast.”

In the December 19, 1991 issue of the Christian Science Monitor Senator Al Gore called NREN the “information superhighway” – a catalyst for what he hoped would one day become a national fiber-optic network. Clearly in 1991 normal channels (TheRegister et al) were not around to make these announcements so he had to make do with the Christian Science Monitor.

I’ve already blogged that by last year BT in the UK had 11 million kms of fibre in the ground. I would expect that Al Gore might consider the Information Superhighway to well and truly have arrived.

Actually he would be reasonably right for a good proportion of internet users. This post though is not a rave about the digital divide. It is actually about marketing hype.

The latest political buzz-phrase seems to be “superfast broadband”. I personally think these hyped up phrases have had their day. Politicians across the ages have obviously latched on to them in their own messaging and marketing campaigns.

I wish people would just stick to the facts. In this case max possible speed 40Mbps, min 15Mbps, probably 25Mbps on average, certainly if we are talking FTTC. Clearly I will never make it in the marketing game.

I have though invented two Laws of the Internet.

The THIRD LAW OF THE INTERNET says that cups of tea always go cold before you finish drinking them when surfing. It’s a proven fact with a lot of laboratory research to back it up.

The FOURTH LAW OF THE INTERNET says that marketing hype accelerates faster than Moores Law. They are completely unconnected – I know that his will be a difficult concept for some to grasp (bit like Einstein’s Theory of Relativity but different).

The practical implication of the FOURTH LAW is that we will soon have to invent new words to describe how fast a connection is.

Today it is superfast broadband. Tomorrow it is going to have to be “this broadband is so fast you won’t be able to touch your router because it is so hot”. It’s a fact. It’ll give politicos a problem though – not a quick soundbyte phrase.

Ah well. My thanks to the internet (phrase circa1996) for access to Wikipedia for the historical stuff. Marvellous.

PS the FIRST and SECOND LAWS OF THE INTERNET have yet to be discovered.  They might not even exist. Scientists tell me we will need better search engine technology than is available today to find them.

PPS if someone else already invented different third and fourth laws, for clarity these are trefor davies’ third and fourth laws of the internet.

Categories
Business internet security

New scheme for replacing copper with fibre

I note the new scheme for pressurising BT to replace it’s copper local access network with fibre has not been completely going to plan as thieves today accidentally stole lengths of fibre by mistake. Doh.

The gang, who must surely be Fibre To The Home activists, are obviously from a Rural Cadre. I can only think their education suffered early on due to not having access to the internet and they found it difficult to tell the copper (Cu) apart from glass (Si). 

Also their thinking is misguided if they think that BT will replace the stolen copper with fibre.  The BT insurance policy is almost certainly “like for like”. So stolen copper has to be replaced by more copper. Doh again!

In any case on this occasion they went and pinched some Virgin Media fibre in Leeds. Obviously couldn’t spell either!! BT – Virgin Media – hard to tell the difference eh?

There is of course a serious side to all this in that thieves are apparently going around stealing copper as it has doubled in value in the last year.  BT’s network is easy game. Thanks to @bungieboy for the lead via twitter and ElReg’s Chris Williams for the detail.

Categories
Business internet piracy Regs

UK Gov to block access to Google? Chinese to follow suit?

I note that Google has stopped censoring Chinese searches and is routing its traffic via servers in Hong Kong in order to be able to do this. One wonders whether the Chinese will take measures to block access to these servers!?

I wonder also whether the UK Government has considered blocking access to Google within these shores.  After all millions of people will be using the search engine to find out how they go about indulging in a bit of Music Piracy.  How to avoid detection.

When I do a search for anything using Google I get a list of websites that match my search criteria.  If I was a naughty boy and wanted to download free music in breach of the copyright laws, that Google search would probably contain information as to where I can get this music and probably a link to the relevant song/page. Surely this is wrong! Isn’t it?

Will the Home Secretary be using the new found powers he is awarding himself through the Digital Economy Bill to block UK access to Google and thus prevent this miscarriage of justice from happening?

This might sound a bit extreme but I think the scenario shows the absurdity of what UK gov is trying to do with the Digital Economy Bill.

Categories
Business internet Regs

Gordon Brown speech on Building Britain’s Digital Future #bbdf

The election campaign is in full swing with Prime Minster Gordon Brown this morning giving a speech, entitled “Building Britain’s Digital Future” and broadcast live at about 8am on number10.gov.uk.

I’m not going to provide a detailed analysis of this.  You can catch that from all the tweets at #bbdf. The PM covered a wide range of subjects that fall under the banner of Digital Britain. Much of the content I am concerned with was just a regurgitation of what has been said for the last year – 50p tax on phone lines, high speed access for all etc. etc. I don’t really see the evidence that this is going to happen yet, or at least not much progress.

What was important in my mind was the recognition or reinforcement of the point that UK.gov has to embrace web technology.  There is a long way to go here as well. I note that the speech was broadcast on the number 10 website. I found out about it on twitter via @hadleybeeman. When I “tuned in” there were 87 watchers.  By the time I had to leave to go to work there were 157. That’s only 157.

There is clearly a disconnect between the PMs speech being made available on line and people knowing it was there or feeling inclined to watch it. There is a long way to go before Government is properly online.

It was probably to some extent down to the timing – during the morning rush hour.  Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favour of much of what the Government is saying about Building Britain’s Digital Future. Regular readers will know that this doesn’t extend to how they are going about it though. 

The appointment of Sir Tim Berners-Lee as joing head of a new Institute of Web Science might sound good but web technology, once it got off the ground has proliferated because private industry recognised that there was money to be made. That same private industry is even prepared to take big punts where it isn’t quite  clear where the money will come from (eg twitter).

So in my mind the main area of focus should be creating the environment for ideas to flourish. An Institute of Web Science can no doubt contribute to this – just by being there.  More important is to make sure that all the contradictions we keep hearing about – digital inclusion versus blocking of websites and cutting off internet access; the improvement of the rates  set up for fibre; reforms to the online copyright licensing regime etc etc.

If anyone wants to add to the list by making a comment on this post that would be great. After Easter the Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA) is going to be working on its own manifesto stating what the ISP industry thinks Government should be doing. All inputs considered.

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Business internet Regs

Gordon Brown speech on Building Britain's Digital Future #bbdf

The election campaign is in full swing with Prime Minster Gordon Brown this morning giving a speech, entitled “Building Britain’s Digital Future” and broadcast live at about 8am on number10.gov.uk.

I’m not going to provide a detailed analysis of this.  You can catch that from all the tweets at #bbdf. The PM covered a wide range of subjects that fall under the banner of Digital Britain. Much of the content I am concerned with was just a regurgitation of what has been said for the last year – 50p tax on phone lines, high speed access for all etc. etc. I don’t really see the evidence that this is going to happen yet, or at least not much progress.

What was important in my mind was the recognition or reinforcement of the point that UK.gov has to embrace web technology.  There is a long way to go here as well. I note that the speech was broadcast on the number 10 website. I found out about it on twitter via @hadleybeeman. When I “tuned in” there were 87 watchers.  By the time I had to leave to go to work there were 157. That’s only 157.

There is clearly a disconnect between the PMs speech being made available on line and people knowing it was there or feeling inclined to watch it. There is a long way to go before Government is properly online.

It was probably to some extent down to the timing – during the morning rush hour.  Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favour of much of what the Government is saying about Building Britain’s Digital Future. Regular readers will know that this doesn’t extend to how they are going about it though. 

The appointment of Sir Tim Berners-Lee as joing head of a new Institute of Web Science might sound good but web technology, once it got off the ground has proliferated because private industry recognised that there was money to be made. That same private industry is even prepared to take big punts where it isn’t quite  clear where the money will come from (eg twitter).

So in my mind the main area of focus should be creating the environment for ideas to flourish. An Institute of Web Science can no doubt contribute to this – just by being there.  More important is to make sure that all the contradictions we keep hearing about – digital inclusion versus blocking of websites and cutting off internet access; the improvement of the rates  set up for fibre; reforms to the online copyright licensing regime etc etc.

If anyone wants to add to the list by making a comment on this post that would be great. After Easter the Internet Services Providers Association (ISPA) is going to be working on its own manifesto stating what the ISP industry thinks Government should be doing. All inputs considered.

Categories
Business internet security

UK cybercrime defences are good says House of Lords but Estonia’s are rubbish

Doesn’t quite match does it? The House of Lords telling us that the UK has strong defences against cybercrime. It is quite possible that your average crusted baronet has no idea what cybercrime is.

I’m being a bit unfair here in the interest of humour.

This week the House of Lords European Union Committee published its report into protecting Europe against large-scale cyber attacks. The report looked into the resilience of Europe’s and the UK’s internet infrastructure which is deemed part of critical national infrastructure.

The report argued that there is a wide variation between Member States on this issue, with the UK having “sophisticated and well-developed defences to guard against attacked and disruption”.

Estonia however, and for example, which as a nation is heavily dependent on the internet, is knackered (my word not their Lordships) if subjected to even a minor cyber attack.

The Committee made a number of findings including: the public sector should take the initiative on how cyber-security could be developed on a global basis; EU and NATO should work closer together, and the Government should encourage this to happen; and the European Commission should propose establishing national Computer Emergency Response Teams (CERTS).

More here

Categories
Business internet piracy Regs

120A kicked into touch but Digital Economy Bill still likely to cost ISPs half a billion #digitalbritain

The Digital Economy Bill passed through the House of Lords this week after completing its Third Reading. During the debate the Government kicked Lib Dem amendment 120A into touch.

This was the one on blocking of websites illegally containing copyright content and which caused an uprising of the internet industry last week. Lord Young speaking for the Government commented that “the clause was not enforceable and was incompatible with the Technical Standards Directive”.

The Government did commit to proposing a compromise clause that could give the Secretary of State power to “consult on blocking measures”. The debate in full can be found here.

In laymans terms this potentially gives Lord Mandelson (or whoever sits in that seat in a couple of months time) the ability to take power into his own hands… hmm… Not much better than 120A was suggesting in many people’s minds. These things are best handled by court judges, as indeed is the current position in Law.

The First Reading of the Bill in the House of Commons also took place this week and the date for the Second Reading is yet to be confirmed. As I have previously mentioned on a few occasions now due to the shortage of Parliamentary time before the election the Bill is likely to undergo very little scrutiny at the Second Reading before the front benches consider the Bill during wash-up (stitch-up).

Interesting to note that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has also updated its Digital Ecomomy Bill Impact Assessment. The report estimates a cost to ISPS of £290-500 million with a benefit to rights holders of £1,700 million.

The report also admits that the costs and benefits of Clause 18 have not been subject to prior consultation due to the limited time between the introduction of the clause and the finalisation of the impact assessment. In laymans terms what this says is that they haven’t really considered whether this part of the DEB is worth the effort.

A recently leaked Music Industry letter to Rights-Holders discussed the fact that when it comes to pursuing online copyright infringers any cost sharing that might be agreed would be split 75% Music Industry/25% ISPs. I can now see where they got this figure from. Foot – Gun – Bang.  They are after 50/50 share of the costs which on the face of it doesn’t seem fair. In fact if the RH benefits is almost £2Bn as suggested and the costs to ISPs are £0.5 Billion there seems to me to be a strong case for RHs to pay all the costs as is, (and I might be wrong here) currently the law.

The perceived benefits to Rights-Holders has also to be taken with a degree of caution here. What they are saying is that if you stop people from downloading music (& movies etc) illegally they will start paying for it instead. It also presupposes that the measures under consideration will actually stop copyright infringement. During the Panorama programme on the BBC this week it was clearly suggested it wouldn’t.

Meanwhile the UK Performing Rights Society for Music, which represents songwriters, composers and music publishers, announced this week a 2.6 per cent rise in annual revenues to £623m and a growth in online revenues from legal licensed digital music services from 72.7 per cent to £30.4m.

!!!!!!

Categories
broadband Business

FTTC – that's about the size of it

Three photos – first one showing a “normal” street cabinet next to a FTTC cabinet. The latter is much larger to be able to take the DSLAM kit. Exciting stuff eh? Thanks to BT for the pics.

BT Openreach FTTC cabinet next to a normal street cabinet
FTTC cabinet next to a normal street cabinet

Second photo shows inside of a cabinet – no DSLAM in it yet.

Inside a BT Openreach FTTC cabinet
Inside a BT Openreach FTTC cabinet
Third  photo shows a cabinet with DSLAM kit in it. I will check the first two are right because they do look different.  FTTC cabs are definately bigger than normal ones.
BT Openreach FTTC cabinet with DSLAM kit inside
BT Openreach FTTC cabinet with DSLAM kit inside
Categories
broadband Business

FTTC Broadband Cabinet – That’s About the Size of It

No question. Size matters when it comes to FTTC broadband cabinets.

Three photos – first one showing a “normal” street cabinet next to a FTTC cabinet. The latter is much larger to be able to take the DSLAM kit. Exciting stuff eh? Thanks to BT for the pics.  Edit much later – the bottom cab is definitely an FTTC broadband cabinet, however the other two are not (pics came from BT so error somewhere in the process). Thanks to reader Andrew Benham for pointing this out.  Thanks also to Andrew for the photos now inserted in this alternative and more recent post.

BT Openreach FTTC cabinet next to a normal street cabinet
FTTC broadband cabinet next to a normal street cabinet

Second photo shows inside of an FTTC broadband cabinet – no DSLAM in it yet.

Inside a BT Openreach FTTC cabinet
Inside a BT Openreach FTTC cabinet
Third  photo shows a cabinet with DSLAM kit in it. I will check the first two are right because they do look different.  FTTC cabinets are definitely bigger than normal ones.
BT Openreach FTTC cabinet with DSLAM kit inside
BT Openreach FTTC cabinet with DSLAM kit inside
Categories
broadband Business internet

Rural Broadband: The Tim Padfield Interviews

This week saw a series of interviews by Tim Padfield on BBC Radio Lancashire – all focussed on highlighting the problems caused by there being no access to broadband internet connectivity in rural areas in the UK.

I won’t make specific comments but I’m sure there will be plenty of people wanting to do so on this post.

1 Christine Conder
Christine Conder of Wray Community WiFi Network says a third of the country can’t get decent broadband and on this basis this area should be first on the list for the NGA rollout. Talks about Final Third

Continue reading “Rural Broadband: The Tim Padfield Interviews”
Categories
End User internet piracy Regs

3 strikes has resulted in increased illegal downloading #digitalbritain

I caught this article in Sam Knows telling us that in France the number of people downloading content illegally has increased since the 3 strikes law was introduced.  One wonders if it has encouraged people to do more of it,  knowing that they can get away with it twice even if they are caught!!

Categories
End User internet media piracy Regs

Music Industry piling on the punches in final round of DEB big fight #digitalbritain

In the press today is a report that says “The growth of illegal file-sharing could cost European countries 1.2m jobs and 240bn euros (£215bn) by 2015”.

“the UK’s creative industries experienced losses of 1.4bn euros in 2008 because of piracy.”

Really, so where did that 1.4bn go? It certainly didn’t go into bank accounts (otherwise the ratios would be really healthy), it hasn’t been spent in the shops (or they wouldn’t be suffering) and its not been invested in anything (because that amount of investment would have been noticed?).

The basic maths works something like this:

Continue reading “Music Industry piling on the punches in final round of DEB big fight #digitalbritain”
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broadband End User internet

FTTC Broadband – What Exactly Is It?

FTTC local architecture
FTTC local architecture

Readers who are somewhat unclear on FTTC broadband soon won’t be. Read on.

FTTC broadband exchange rollout posts have attracted a huge amount of interest on this blog. More so in fact than any other subject I have posted on. There is clearly a demand out there for the faster speeds.

There isn’t that much info out there on what the proposition actually is so I am happy to remedy this. The following spiel has been pinched from the BT Wholesale FTTC Handbook (thanks to BT for letting me do this) .  This is normally only provided to ISPs who are reselling the technology/solution.

As is the nature of these things I have had to simplify the wording but if you see some complex technospeak it is probable left over from the original text. I’m afraid there is no getting away from the acronyms. The diags are BT (Wholesale & Openreach) originals.

FTTC Intro

Fibre To The Cabinet (FTTC) utilises BT’s 21st Century Network.  If an ISP already offers ADSL2+ services based on

Continue reading “FTTC Broadband – What Exactly Is It?”
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Business internet piracy Regs

Lib Dems Spring Conf Emergency Motion against amendment 120A carried unanimously #digitalbritain

People closely following the Amendment 120A debate at the Lib Dem Spring Conference will already know that the Emergency Motion was carried unanimously (apart from one vote I understand).

I am reporting it here for the record and following on from yesterday’s short post announcing it. You can read a bit more on the Lib Dem website here.

The Digital Economy Bill is going right to the wire I feel.

Categories
Business internet piracy Regs

Lib Dems to vote on Digital Economy Bill amendment 120A at spring conf this weekend #digitalbritain

An Emergency Motion against the Digital Economy Bill amendment 120A has been tabled at the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference in Manchester this weekend.

Obviously I’ll keep us all updated but it may make next week quite interesting on the Parliamentary front if the motion is carried.