Our Comment
Ericsson CMO says Wi-Fi hotspots' days are numbered
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/20/wi_fi_hotspots_claim/
Executive summary:
Adding to the growing number of people thinking that public
Wi-Fi hotspots are nearing the end of their usefulness, the
Chief Marketing Officer of Ericsson outlines his thoughts.
Impact for Milton Keynes:
MEDIUM. While a number of people in Milton Keynes cannot get
access to broadband at all, mobile broadband via a USB dongle or
embedded SIM laptop would be a great alternative, indeed with
speeds now up to 7.2MBps for as little as £15 per month (up to
5GB of data transfer), the speed and pricing are comparable to
basic land-based broadband packages.
MKBAG's view:
We recommend the use of mobile broadband alternatives where
no land-based broadband is possible, and there is a need to get
online.
You should be aware of the maximum data transfer limits of
any offering you take up. For basic surfing these options should
suffice for 75% of users. Additionally, a mobile subscription
will allow you to use broadband on any PC you take the dongle
to, thus bypassing having to pay £10 a session for public Wi-Fi
hotspots anyway.
It's an interesting point to note that in some countries,
such as Austria, there will be more users of mobile broadband
than fixed land-based broadband before the end of 2008.
Phorm - privacy invasion posing as an ISP feature
www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/29/phorm_roundup/
www.badphorm.co.uk
Executive summary:
Phorm is an online advertising company that is promising
"targeted advertising". They have signed deals and will be live
before Summer 2008 with Virgin Media, Talk Talk and BT
Broadband. They are installing new kit into each of the ISP's
server equipment that will track your behaviour, visited web
sites, search queries and more - and then provide advertising on
web pages, that is based around your personal web habits.
Impact for Milton Keynes:
LOW. This is an advisory notice for users of these ISPs that
their habits will be tracked. There is no opt-out from the
monitoring, just a promise that if you ask to opt-out, that
Phorm will not act on the data they compile from you.
MKBAG's view:
This causes large implications for the Data Protection Act and
the RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000). Phorm's
system works by reading the contents of web pages you visit, to
build up a profile of your interests on your computer. It then
uses this information to target you with categories of
advertising when you later visit a website that is a member of
the Open Internet Exchange (OIX), its publisher and advertiser
network. Phorm has announced that The Guardian, Financial Times
and MySpace have all signed up to let it serve the targeted ads
to their users.
From Jakob Neilsen's latest
Usability Newsletter.
Executive summary: Jakob Neilsen, "one of the world's
foremost experts in Web usability", according to Business Week,
has been tracking the uptake of bandwidth through his own "Neilsen's
Law" since 1998. He has shown that during that time, a 49% PER
YEAR growth factor in speed has occurred - that's 57 times
growth in speed, compounded over ten years.
Impact for Milton Keynes: HIGH. Milton Keynes does not
have the broadband infrastructure to cope with a c.50% per year
bandwidth demand increase and requires intervention to keep the
town at the forefront of emerging technology.
MKBAG's view: Coming from someone as pragmatic as Jakob
Neilsen, you can be sure that this data set isn't biased. Jakob
specialises in web usability and argues the point that sites
should be designed to avoid high-bandwidth design. However, he
openly acknowledges that YouTube and other media-heavy sites
will continue to drive this speed threshold upwards - rapidly.
While web experiences may be poor in Milton Keynes today, they
will be non-existent in 12 to 24 months for any "web 2.0" sites,
such as MySpace, YouTube, FaceBook - costing people in the local
economy money and retarding inward investment.
The Register...
BT gets EU backing to raise (and cut) wholesale broadband prices
Executive summary: BT has been given permission to
remove price controls from certain exchanges around the UK where
the regulator, Ofcom deems that there ‘is enough local
competition to drive prices down’.
Impact for Milton Keynes: LOW. While there is a degree of
“LLU” (Local Local Unbundling – where the connection of your
line at the exchange is no longer handled by BT) in Milton
Keynes, the number of people able to take advantage of LLU, due
to lack of exchange capacity and long-length lines limits the
impact of this news to negatively or positively affect prices
for broadband in Milton Keynes in the short to mid-term.
MKBAG’s view: Until the issue of long lines, lack of
capacity and general lack of broadband availability in Milton
Keynes is resolved, the area will remain a price-stable island
unable to flex pricing downwards due to lack of competition in
the area (no competition from Virgin Media, no effective need to
drop prices to welcome a sudden influx of customers onto
broadband ISP’s LLU programmes). This changes nothing in terms
of availability of broadband for Milton Keynes.
Latest News
Preferred Options for the future of Milton Keynes.
Cllr Bint writes (November 2007)
BT's 21st Century Network Progress.
Latest here... (December 2007)
Pipex Wireless remain committed to moving forwards with a
full network roll out of equipment in the MK area.
More here... (August 2007)
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