| Posted: Wednesday 10th March 2004 by
Sam |
With only the never ending introduction of low-bandwith broadband connections to keep us amused, the past week has been pretty slow for news.
That said, the following snippets of news may interest some of you...
Firstly, there's no news on this weeks RFS dates yet. I haven't heard anything about them being delayed, so it's still reasonable to expect them later this evening.
Secondly, as many already suspected, BT will be using a two-way satellite system to deliver "100% coverage" to the very remotest parts of the UK (in conjunction with wireless technologies). This was revealed at recent sixth Broadband Via Satellite conference by BT Broadcast and Satellite Comunications. They will also be expecting subsidies from RDA's (Regional Development Agencies) in order to be able to bring the price down to the same wholesale level as ADSL. It was also revealed that "internal conflict" prevented this system being rolled out two years ago as an interim solution.
Following last weeks slip from NTL about their new variable rate broadband services (which are now believed only to be technology trials rather than actual packages), the UK Broadband Usergroup reports that Fujitsu-Siemens is conducting similar trials in conjunction with 1,000 BT Yahoo! customers. This should allow for users to hop between 512Kbps, 1Mbps and 2Mbps dynamically.
I've also been hearing about some new trials that BT will be running at some of the larger exchanges in the summer. Details are very sketchy at the moment, but it seems that they will be testing a range of new DSL products - some with further reach and others with much faster data rates than currently available.
I've also got a few new developments planned for the site soon, but things have been pretty busy lately. |