Weblog on the Internet and public policy, journalism, virtual community, and more from David Brake, a Canadian academic, consultant and journalist

Archive for the 'Broadband infrastructure' Category | back to home

18 January 2003

iWire alerted me to the fact that Norwich is going to spend £3.4m on a broadband network for public sector organizations in the city.
I hope they think to make some of the network capacity available to the public via wireless as well…sexy xxx moviesstrippers moviesfor teens movie cashhole movie themovie thumbzilla archivetitty movies fuckmovies tulsaultra movies hardcoreand to movie script walk remembersamples movie zoo

16 January 2003
Filed under:Broadband infrastructure at8:28 pm

That’s an interesting assertion made in passing in this interview with Barclay Knapp, head of NTL.

I always presumed that the cost of providing broadband for cable companies might be lower than the cost for the telcos using DSL but not greatly lower. Then I read this:

“…it is broadband where NTL is likely to make most money. Analysts estimate gross profit margins on the service can be as high as 90%.”

If companies like Telewest (my cable modem provider) offered £10 a month broadband instead of £25 I wonder how many more TV and telephone customers they could eventually sign up once they were “hooked” using broadband?

It’s good to see strong reactions to the recent Sp!ked piece critical of the UK Government’s pilot projects providing Internet access to disadvantaged neighborhoods.year personal unsecured loan repayment 10loan money 11 16 paycheck paydayhome 125 credit loan equity125 secured loan ukpayday loan 19 software free 132000 loan bad credit forloan 228hour cash 24 loans Map

23 December 2002

The iSociety alerted me to recent coverage by the BBC and the Guardian Online about EdenFaster. It is a community-led project supplying broadband to a valley in rural England which would otherwise be passed over by telecomms suppliers.

What is interesting about EdenFaster is that while it provides some Internet access it intends to use the speeds it offers – up to 40Mbps – primarily to deliver community-generated content.

I hope they are successful, but I am not sure they will be able to find enough active information providers among a small community of rural farmers to provide a serious amount of deep, well-maintained content. Freenets in the 90s (mostly in the US) sprang up with similar intentions to offer community networking and Internet access to their local areas “on the side”. Unfortunately, people were mostly attracted by the ability to access the Internet and when commercial Internet providers appeared, the Freenets gradually died away.

To my mind community content will succeed when
1) broadband is reasonably ubiquitous in an area (and people know their neighbors will be reading)
2) Tools are available that make providing content and community participation easy for everyone
3) Enthusiastic leadership evangelises use and provides support.

Let’s hope all three elements are in place with the Edenfaster project and that it can be an example of good practice for other such projects.

19 December 2002

I have long taken issue with those who claim that the main benefit to broadband for most people is speed. And in fact, a recent report by the iSociety team at the Work Foundation has indicated that speed is pretty irrelevant for what most broadband users. But it also indicated that they don’t get the most out of what I consider the most obvious benefit – the “always on”-ness of the technology. Why? Because people tend leave their computers switched off at home when not in use.

The ever-quotable James Crabtree at iSociety explains “the PC is more scary monster than household pet. It is rarely loved, sometimes feared.”

So how much power does your computer use when switched on but on “suspend mode” (and its monitor is switched off)? According to this only about 20 watts – a quarter of an ordinary lightbulb.

What do people like about broadband, then? Apparently it is the fact that when it is switched on they don’t have to “watch the clock” – it isn’t metered. Of course you can get un-metered dialup but Joe or Jill public still wouldn’t wander away from their computer with it still connected to get themselves a cup of tea. It would still be tying up their phone line and it might disconnect itself.

More from the iSociety team on their weblog – about the report specifically, here and here.

They promise more research on people’s broadband-use behaviour. What I would like to know is that given most “ordinary folks” aren’t really getting what most of us hardcore users get out of broadband how many of them think it’s worth paying out the extra for it?

11 December 2002
Filed under:Broadband infrastructure at11:28 am

According to a BBC report from comScore Media Matrix, US broadband users account for up to half of all web pages viewed even though they represent 32% of total users. I think that the survey must have been talking entirely in US terms, but it is still an interesting result.

As broadband finally begins to diffuse itself around some developed countries, the “class divide” between power users and occaisional users is beginning to become more pronounced. Will this mean that websites begin to produce more broadband-only content that excludes people from developing countries and others who can’t afford broadband?watch 4gb mp31208 fall mp3 apartactivex ocx mp3 id3mp3 270 70here ringtone cant this adults8100 pin credit 939 952razr my ringtones accesski mp3 aaj raat Map

Academics and educators point out the obvious – broadband by itself won’t do much if anything to improve schools and hospitals – it depends what you do with it. Or that is where this BBC story begins – it quickly gets distracted by more prosaic issues of training and difficulties in arranging timetables around broadband education…

In reality the big question mark in my view is still more fundamental – broadband may be able to deliver more educational material in theory but does the material exist? Can it be integrated in the curriculum? Do teachers understand what it does (and doesn’t do)? Does the material provide the chance for real interactive learning or just a narrow set of branches towards a pre-programmed goal?

Similarly, broadband can only help doctors if they do perceive it as a benefit and rely on it.

I am very dubious about the repetition in this piece (and presumably in the thinking of some in the policy arena) about the importance of videoconferencing. Broadband does enable limited videoconferencing but is this really something valuable or would messageboards or mailing lists and other forms of communication (still helped by broadband) be more useful?

23 November 2002

The gov’t is apparently promising broadband to every doctor’s surgery as well. And even better, I read that the e-minister grasps the important point that,

“It is no longer enough to have services enabled by 2005, we have to drive up the number of people using them… we have to re-engineer services around the needs of the citizen.”

Let’s see if they can walk the walk the way they talk the talk.
Also, I would like to take issue with the e-envoy who reportedly maintains that the UK had already achieved universal access thanks to the 6,000 UK Online centres and a raft of kiosks in high streets and railway stations. People are not likely to see a broad range of Internet services as part of their lives until they can access them from the comfort and privacy of their own homes.porn movies teachersex movie teacheramateur movies teen webcamteen kelly movieteeny movies sapphicbutterfly movie the effectmovie the doorsbooty thick movies Mapmovie big clips free titmovies dick black freeinternet bootleg free movies adultfree bukakke moviescfnm movies freemovies stocking free xxx dailyfree fuckingmachine moviesmovies free porn full lenght Map

20 November 2002

The UK Gov’t has pledged at the recent e-summit to get every school onto broadband by 2006. This is rather good but if you are going thereby to ensure every remote village has broadband access anyway, why not find some way to ensure that the bandwidth is also available to other people in the area who are not already served? How about some form of public wireless mesh network with schools as the hubs in internet-deprived areas?advances loan 10 payday texas 1415 10 for loan paydayloan 14 payday 10 payday loans12 payday credit 17 loanpayday 6 free 4 information loan5 payday no loan credit 7payday 7 texas loan 5payday cash account advance loanhouse add loan urlloan payday quick advance

12 November 2002

Yet another comparative survey on broadband takeup across Europe – this one indicates that 7% of UK users are now on broadband, compared to 17% in Spain (how humiliating to be left behind by Spain!) and 29% in Sweden. But the news is not all bad – we are catching up to Germany and Italy who are tied on 8%. Of course the low German numbers may be due to the large number of ISDN connections there – if you can get 128KBps on dialup then you might not be as keen to upgrade.

Across Europe, 26% of people said they were looking to get broadband but worryingly a quarter said they “would never” get it. And that’s a sample of people already using the Internet – if you looked at the overall population the numbers would be even more discouraging. Cost of access used to be a significant barrier, but with some broadband connections under £20 a month this is getting to be less of an excuse.

Clearly the man on the street (or even more importantly the woman on the street) needs to understand what the relevance of broadband is to them.for free adult sexaja 80 s pornoffender registry alabama sexporn amature trailersalicia sex silverstonefree amature sexsex ameteuramatuer photos sexy Map

? Previous PageNext Page ?