To celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Cable and Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia (CASBAA) put together a blockbuster CASBAA Convention 2011 in Hong Kong in early November. But some of the expected fireworks at the convention were not quite as explosive as many delegates had hoped.
The announcement on Aug. 10 that US online-video site Hulu
was planning to make its first foray into Asia Pacific with the launch of
services in Japan did not come as a particularly big surprise, considering that
Hulu had never made a secret of its international ambitions.
Conventional wisdom has it that the APAC region is dominated by high-speed fibre networks and that nobody in the region could ever be so gauche as to still be running something as old hat as plain old DSL – nothing could be further from the truth.
Sometimes the good people of Hong Kong must wonder what on earth they have done to deserve such a plethora of high-speed broadband offerings (writes Tony Brown, Senior Analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media). At times it must almost be too much, as their cup overflows with cut-rate 100Mbps offerings being forced upon them by market-share-hungry operators.
Having lived the first half of my adult life in the UK and the second half in Australia, it is little wonder that I have such a strong affinity with the underdog in a given situation, since both countries have cultures that root for the little guy to succeed over a bigger, stronger opponent.
In this job I am lucky to get to travel to some truly fantastic cities: This year alone I have been able to visit three of the most amazing places on the planet – London, Shanghai and Hong Kong – and I won’t even begin to brag about the three day trip I scored to Shenzhen.
In the Australian context Turnbull appears to be arguing that in the absence of the NBN – and it is hard to tell his exact position in the absence of a clearly outlined broadband policy – local operators should be allowed to follow the South Korean example and rollout networks where and when they please, purely in the name of diversity and competition.
There is little doubt that City Telecom-owned broadband operator Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) is one of the most remarkable operators in Asia Pacific. What the operator has achieved on a modest budget and against some tough competition has been extraordinary.
The Broadband World Forum 2010 last month in Paris was pure hog heaven for those industry devotees, like me, who are scarcely happier than when spending three days discussing the merits of VDSL vs. FTTH, LTE vs. WiMAX, CDNs, the network-neutrality issue and the problems posed by “over the top” content players. Sad, I know.
The WiMAX Forum has not had too much to cheer about in recent times: Some key WiMAX operators have jumped ship to join the LTE camp, and WiMAX’s fate in the key market of India hangs on the whims of spectrum winner Infotel Broadband Services, backed by Reliance Industries.
When we think of mobile communication there are a few images that flash in ones mind: one of the ongoing ...
Ericson is turning out to be a dissapointment especially in the way they are handling emerging markets:case in point - ...
Dimitris,you have it completely right with Operators focussing on increasing performance which will improve cusotmer experience. That is why ...
Dawinderpal, you are right that mobile operators are facing many challenges while transitioning to the next generation of backhaul on ...
Loading ...