Picture the scene: a music-industry debate hosted in a small room above a pub in Soho, London. “Just answer me: Are you technically able to stop people sharing our music illegally online?” The casually dressed moderator’s voice was tense. It was the third time he’d asked the question.
Are Europe’s former state-owned telecoms monopolies still so powerful that they can halt the march of technological progress? That’s the charge levelled at Danish incumbent TDC by one of the Denmark’s leading fibre-to-the-home operators, aggrieved at the low take-up of its super-fast broadband products.
I had an interesting conversation last week with Steve Glagow, the leader of Orange Partner, the ambitious third-party developer programme of France Telecom. And he confirmed to me that Orange was planning to do something we suspected an operator might try sooner or later: build an Apple-style app store for IPTV.
Some of you may scoff at the notion that mobile group 3 could teach fixed-line ISPs a thing or two about the broadband business. After all, 3 spent the best part of a decade – and an estimated US$20 billion – to become a “new kind of media company” before realizing that the killer apps for its next-generation wireless network were cheap voice and unfettered Internet access. But in doing so, it has learned an important lesson that operators rushing to bring ultrafast cable and fiber broadband services to market could do well to consider.
Nearly 18 months ago, Informa Telecoms & Media reported that the European Commission was preparing to float the idea that broadband should be designated as a “universal service”, that is, made available and affordable to even the most disadvantaged in society. At the time, experts predicted that the plan could result in an embarrassing PR battle for Europe’s operators, which were likely to oppose such a proposal because of the costs involved. Last month, the Commission finally published its green paper, yet few politicians, consumer groups or technology advocates have raised their voices in support of the cause. The problem, it seems, is that they are locked in another PR battle that is embarrassing for all the wrong reasons.
At a recent industry event, a number of executives trotted out the latest variation on that old maxim of the telecoms industry: “Customers don’t really care about technical details; they just care about what technology can do.” In this instance, it was applied to broadband speeds: “Customers don’t really care that our network can’t deliver 8Mbps speeds, they just care that it allows them to access YouTube, Facebook, etc.”
Hamid Akhavan’s claim at the CeBIT trade show in February, that there will be more subscribers to mobile broadband than to DSL within a few years will no doubt lead to a rash of reports predicting that fixed-to- mobile substitution will spread from voice to broadband.
Door-to-door salesmen touting 100Mbps connections. Field engineers fighting over permission to wire up apartment blocks. Coffee mornings about ultra-high-speed broadband for the over-60s. House-proud homeowners digging telecoms trenches in a bid to boost property prices
A step in the right direction but does it go far enough?
Sharing an allowance among family members is one ...
I agree with Dan about this being a excellent read, and that QNX is not well known but sooner or ...
Excellent read with some actual facts compared to the hack journalist/bloggers on the interest. Many don't understand what QNX ...
The main issue with Telenor is that whether they made underhand payments to ge the licenses. If they did, then ...
Over The Top providers have become the staple wildcard in almost any sector set on a collision path with mobile. By and large they are very good at what they do: connecting a user with their chosen content or service by whatever means available.
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