Tag Archive for BT

| February 3, 2015
Comments Off on ISPs – Brits Speed U.S. Squabble

ISPs – Brits Speed U.S. Squabble

ISPs – Brits Speed U.S. SquabbleBritish Telecom has announced its plan to transform the UK broadband landscape from superfast to ultrafast. CircleID reports that the company plans to deliver much faster broadband for homes and small businesses via a widespread deployment of “G.fast” (G.9701) — a technology the company will pilot test this Summer. G.fast is aimed to help BT deliver ultrafast speeds of up to 500 Mbps to most of the UK within a decade. The deployment will start in 2016–2017, BT says.

US broadbandThe day before, the FCC announced that they have re-defined the meaning of broadband in the United States. Under the new definition, US broadband has changed from a measly 4 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up to an anemic 25 Mbps down and 3 Mbps up. There will be little impact for the end-user because this is just gooberment posturing. This will put the US in some low rank internationally. While the UK global telecom giant BT sets its sites on 500 Mbps. The FCC’s presser states that the ruling is meaningless. Their own document says:

… its 25/3 benchmark as a standard to measure the progress of broadband deployment. However, the benchmark is not a minimum speed requirement and does not prevent broadband service providers from advertising or describing slower service as broadband.

Republicans blasted the new definition of broadbandNot surprisingly, 100% of US ISP’s are against this redefinition of broadband the cable lobby is opposed to the FCC’s plan. Ars Technica reports that the Telecommunications Association (NCTA) wrote in an FCC filing Thursday (PDF) that, “Customers do just fine with lower speeds.”

In addition to the CableCo lobby’s opposition, PCWorld reports that Republicans blasted the FCC report and new definition of broadband.

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The Register notes how little things have changed. Haters are going to hate. In 2008, Commissioner Robert McDowell opposed increasing the speed definition of broadband from 200Kbps to 768Kbps. McDowell today represents Washington DC law firm Wiley Rein and appeared last week in Congress arguing that the FCC should not introduce net neutrality rules.

Do you want Comcast in charge of the web? Support net neutrality.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| January 28, 2014
Comments Off on Alien Super Channels Set Record

Alien Super Channels Set Record

Alien Super Channels Set RecordResearchers have used alien technology to demo a broadband technology that can hit 1.4 terabits per second. That is enough to send 44 high-definition movies in just one second over the existing fiber network in London according to TechEye. A team from BT (BT) and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) developed new infrastructure.

British Telecom logoThe BBC explained that the researchers used a new “flexigrid” infrastructure. Flexigrid created an “alien super channel.” The alien super channel was made of seven 200 Gbps channels, to vary the gaps between transmission channels. Increasing the channels’ density resulted in a 42.5% increase in the efficiency of data transmission compared with current networks.

Like adding more lanes of traffic

Kevin Drury, optical marketing leader at AlcaLu, told BBC news that the test was aimed at reducing space between lanes on a busy highway. He claims it is like adding more lanes of traffic to flow through the same path. He said that while wide lines can encompass heavy data transfers such as streaming video, narrow lanes would be assigned for low-data transfers such as standard web pages.

increase in the efficiency of data transmissionThe test was conducted on a 255-mile (410km) fiber link between the BT Tower in central London and BT’s Adastral Park research center in Suffolk. BT thinks it could help it to meet consumer and business demand for increased bandwidth.

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Unfortunately, the mega-speed BT’s aliens developed is all backbone and core network stuff. It will not change the speeds we the people will get at home.

Am I the only one that has noticed that none of the new broadband speed records do not happen in the U.S.? The power of monopoly.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| March 27, 2013
Comments Off on Mobile Patent Troll Sues Everyone

Mobile Patent Troll Sues Everyone

Mobile Patent Troll Sues EveryoneSurprise, surprise there’s another mobile-related patent lawsuit. at GigaOM says this time the plaintiff is an obscure Delaware-registered limited liability non-practicing entity called Steelhead. The patent in question covers ‘mobile radio handover initiation determination’ – in other words, choosing which cellular base station has the best signal as the handset moves from one place to another.

Cell phonesThe defendants are a who’s who of the mobile world: Apple (AAPL), AT&T (T), Google (GOOG), HTC, Kyocera (KYO), LG (LGLD), MetroPCS (PCS), Motorola Mobility, NEC Corporation (6701), Pantech, Research In Motion (RIMM), Sony (SNE), Sprint (S), T-Mobile, Verizon (VZ) and ZTE (763). The article says these firms committed the mortal sin of allowing their mobile phones to act like mobile phones. But the interesting thing about this particular suit is the origin of the suit – or, more precisely, the reporting around that origin.

Mr. Meyer reports that U.S. Patent No. 5,491,834 comes from BT (BT). It was filed in 1993 and granted in 1996. The patent is still listed by the USPTO as belonging to BT. In its court filings provided by the author, (the Motorola/Google example is here), Steelhead notes that it “owns all rights of recovery under the ‘834 Patent, including the exclusive right to recover for past infringement.”

aggressively monetizingThe author suggests that this case may not be BT “aggressively monetizing” its patent portfolio. BT told Mr. Meyer, “BT sold all of its rights to the patents last year. We have no involvement in Steelhead Licensing LLC’s litigation activity.”

BT claims the troll is not a shell front for the firm. A spokesperson for the telecom giant told GigaOM,  “BT doesn’t share in Steelhead’s licensing income”.

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I have covered the mobile patent wars many times here. I don’t know why I find patent trolling so interesting to follow. Maybe it is the same reason I watch NASCAR highlights, for the crashes, or the buy a few Powerball tickets, just in case.

Maybe someday all the money spent on lawyers will actually go back to making things and creating jobs.

Kids squabblingShame on BT if this is a legit patent and they were not smart enough to enforce their claim when they had it. I’m no lawyer, it seems to me that mobiles that can’t find a cell tower to connect to don’t work.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| July 31, 2009
Comments Off on Global Tech Layoffs Pass Half a Million

Global Tech Layoffs Pass Half a Million

The global body count in the tech sector has risen above 500,000 in July 2009. Since the correction, recession, economic melt-down started in earnest in October 2008, about 505,477 tech-related jobs have been right-sized, down-sized, resource actions eliminated. January 2009 is the worst month for employees with nearly 164,000 tech jobs eliminated. October 2008 saw over 56,000 workers pink-slipped. Approximately 53,500 tech workers we laid off in both December 2008 and February 2009. The last two months have shown a decline in the numbers of tech workers getting the ax. In June 2009, 4,326 workers were laid off, the smallest monthly count since the economic meltdown started. July 2009 witnessed 12,65 layoffs, most from Verizon. The July count is also well below the average 50,000 lay-offs a month pace being set during the economic meltdown.Global Tech Layoffs

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These numbers say to me that we are still in for a long hard year before anything like a real turn-around emerges. So despite what Newsweek says, the recession is not over.

Among the firms that generated these layoffs are:

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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