Digital divide

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Will a shift to gesture based computing via tablets and apps help get the final third online? A guest blog

Friday, May 28th, 2010

On the day the iPad is launched in the UK, a guest blog from Brian Williamson of Plum Consulting considers what impact a shift to this type of device, with simpler, more intuitive interfaces and utilising mobile connectivity, could have on internet adoption.
“A report by Plum Consulting for Vodafone examines internet use and barriers to [...]

COTS issues coming to the fore

Friday, November 20th, 2009

I spent Monday and Tuesday at CBN’s NextGen 09 conference in Leeds. The conference was well worth the trip, with a series of interesting presentations from excellent speakers interspersed with useful and relevant workshops.
What I found particularly interesting, however, was the number of speakers that referenced issues that the COTS Project is seeking to address. [...]

Additional COTS kick-off meeting in Hull

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Due to the high levels of interest in the COTS Project, we have decided to run an additional kick-off meeting.
This meeting, in Hull on 03 September, will provide those stakeholders that were unable to participate at the first meeting an opportunity to give their views on COTS. It will also be possible to participate remotely: [...]

The COTS Project launch

Friday, August 7th, 2009

We recently launched the COTS Project, short-hand for Commercial, Operational and Technical Standards for Independent Local Open Access Networks.
The objective of the project is:
“to work with representatives of independent local and community–led broadband projects, national network operators and major ISPs to develop a low cost standardised approach to enable a wide range of service providers [...]

Digital Confusion

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

The Digital Britain Report was finally released on Tuesday, and despite the build up, reactions to it have been mixed and, particularly where the broadband measures are concerned, somewhat confused. (Although given that few journalists would have had time to read the 240 page report before filing their copy, this level of confusion is perhaps [...]

Attitudes divide

Friday, June 12th, 2009

Last week the Communications Consumer Panel published research that found that public support for broadband is strong, with over 80% of respondents believing that it should be everyone’s right to have access to broadband, regardless of where they live. 42% of those questioned who do not have broadband believe access is essential.
This would appear to [...]

Broadband in the Budget

Thursday, April 23rd, 2009

In yesterday’s Budget, Alastair Darling stated government’s support for the knowledge economy and the communications sector, and set out a number of policies affecting the broadband industry. Broadly, the top-line statements were as follows.
- Government re-iterates its support for the broadband universal service commitment set out in the Digital Britain Interim Report; will consult on [...]

Australia dumps FTTN proposal - and starts again with FTTH

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

In an extraordinary announcement this morning, the Australian government have announced that they will spend up to A$43bn ($31bn, £21bn) on a new National Broadband Network, providing FTTH to 90% of Australian premises. The final 10% will be served using wireless technologies, capable of 12Mbps.
This scheme replaces the original FTTN project that the government had [...]

Connectivity Scorecard 2009

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Leonard Waverman, of the London Business School, recently published the Connectivity Scorecard 2009, a follow-up to a 2008 scorecard he produced.
The scorecard is one of the more comprehensive efforts to benchmark performance, given its global nature and its composite metrics that provide a more useful view of connectivity within a country. Interestingly, the US comes [...]

Broadband v snow

Saturday, February 7th, 2009

Last Monday saw snow bring the majority of England to a standstill, and disrupted many businesses. But the ability to work from home remotely meant that the disruption for some was less than it otherwise might have been.
ISP PlusNet have produced data showing that the amount of VPN and other associated traffic on their network [...]