The Telecom: UK Telecom's News
 
Daily Telecoms News
Wednesday 14th of May 2008
February 29, 2008

100 million views since 4oD began

by Dave Nixon
With all the exposure about the popularity of the BBC iPlayer service and one side saying the bandwidth it uses has an insignificant effect and the other sounding warning notes, it is easy to overlook that Channel 4 has its own streaming and download service 4oD. 4oD launched way back in January 2006 and has had some 100 million views and ...



Tiscali boss shown the door

by Dave Nixon
Tiscali SpA has changed Chief Executive Tommaso Pompei with board member Mario Rosso and designated that the for sale signs may in reality be going out. Pompei will stay on as Director until the endorsement of the 2007 financial results. Even though no authorized word has come from Tiscali, reports at Reuters indicate that Italy's Fastweb, Vodafone and BT Group have ...



Virgin Media publishes Q4 2007 results

by Dave Nixon
Virgin Media have released their results for Q4 2007, ending December 31st. The figures show possibly one of the finest quarters since the NTL/Telewest merger into Virgin, with an on-net customer net accumulation of 24,400, up from 13,000 last quarter ('on-net' refers to where Virgin operate their own cable network). The TV service has unquestionably seen the end of the ...



Users concerned over privacy issues

by Dave Nixon
Profiling the audience for television programs has occurred for years with advertisers eager to get air time for their adverts when their market audience is viewing. The internet altered that and very frequently advertisers know very little about advert viewing. Phorm, the people behind a new advertising agency are aiming to amend this by tracking the kinds of websites people ...



Mobile broadband gaining ground on ADSL and cable

by Jan Harris
A report in PC Pro suggests that mobile broadband technology, such as 3G data cards, could overtake traditional fixed-line connections, such as ADSL and cable, within the next two years. Comparison site, Top 10 Broadband, has noted a 50 per cent increase, month on month, in sales of mobile broadband, over a six month period. Mobile broadband has the advantage ...



February 28, 2008

Ofcom demands clarity on telecom charges

by Jan Harris
Communications regulator, Ofcom, has produced draft guidelines for telecom and internet firms, regulating the additional charges companies can demand from customers. The regulator devised the new rules in response to complaints from customers about additional charges for paying bills by cheque or cash, ending contracts early or paying bills late. Under the guidelines, which cover home phones, mobile phones, broadband ...



TD-SCDMA sales in China level off

by David Masters
During the fourth quarter of 2007 a total of 72 billion yuan's (US$969 million) worth of TD-SCDMA equipment was purchased by China Mobile Communications, China Telecom and China Network Communications. This is about the same as was purchased by the company's in the previous quarter. China Telecom and China Network both followed the lead of China Mobile, and began setting ...



HTC supply smartphones to Emobile

by David Masters
Taiwan-based manufacturer High Tech Computer (HTC) will soon start shipping the HTC TyTN II 3.5G phone to Emobile, a Japan-based mobile telecom operator. Emobile will sell the device as the S11HT. The S11HT utilises and Windows Mobile operating system and is powered by a Qualcomm MSM 7200 400 GHz processor. Emobile will be using the phone, together with the ...



February 27, 2008

Guest-Tek deploys WiFi at Center Parcs

by Jan Harris
Guest-Tek International Group Ltd has secured a deal with holiday company, Center Parcs, to deploy its OneView Internet platform at Center Parcs' Sherwood Forest resort. The WiFi network provides wireless high speed Internet access (HSIA) for guests at the resort, with Guest-Tek offering HSIA support to guests, around the clock. The Guest-Tek WiFi network can be accessed from Premium accommodation ...



Nortel working with Taiwan manufacturers to develop WiMAX

by David Masters
Nortel Greater China's president, Jackson Wu, has announced that Nortel Networks have started developing 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) technology. The company has also been in talks with Taiwan-based manufacturers trying to get them on board in the development of 4G CPE. Nortel's partners in Taiwan, Zyxel Communications and Quanta Microsystems, are both expected to ship substantially more WiMAX products ...



February 26, 2008

Pick and mix shortly with Sky Picnic

by Dave Nixon
The picnic product choice from Sky has been feasible for some time, but it appears it is entering the final phases of testing with employees now able to use the system at home. SkyUser has a little more information on the service. The initiative behind Picnic is that rather than obliging users to acquire a bundle people can pick and choose ...



UK government to evaluate future of broadband

by Dave Nixon
Today sees the UK government announce an assessment of the outlook of broadband internet in the UK. The review is set to be lead by Francesco Caio who is the previous chief executive of Cable & Wireless. To intimate that France is just testing broadband services using real next generation technologies like fibre is an understatement, the feeling one gets is ...



Ofcom criticised for neglecting business ICT needs

by Jan Harris
Ofcom has been criticised by the Communications Management Association (CMA) for failing to represent the ICT needs of businesses when regulations are drafted. At the CMA's 2008 Annual Conference in London, chairman Carolyn Kimber, said that Ofcom was focused on ensuring competition and choice for the benefit of consumers, but didn't address the need of businesses for competition and choice ...



Dopod aims to double handset sales this year

by David Masters
Dopod China has announced plans to launch 12-13 new handsets in China this year. The launches are part of the company's target to double its Chinese sales numbers compared to 2008. Paul Hsu, Dopod's COO, announced the plans this week, whilst reporting that 2007 saw sales for Dopod increase by 200% compared to 2006 in terms of both volume and ...



Major Chinese telecoms merger expected soon

by David Masters
Telecom service providers in China are to undergo a major overhaul in the coming months, involving a consolidation process in which six of China's key providers will be merged into three companies. It is expected that China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom will be the three companies that survive the merger. China Telecom will be expanding into the mobile ...



CHT to build computer centre for Taiwan’s stock exchange

by David Masters
On 22nd February Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) and the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) signed a memorandum of understanding in which CHT is to establish a computer centre for TSE's stock handling and transactions. The computer centre will built in the city of Panchiao, southwest of Taipei, in the CHT planned Green Data Centre, and is expected to open in 2011. It ...



China’s digital TV subscribers close to 25 million mark

by David Masters
Subscribers to digital cable TV services in China reached 24.62 million by the end of 2007. The fourth quarter saw a 16.7% growth in subscribers compared to the previous quarter. 3.5 million conditional access system (CAS) cards were issued to new subscribers in the fourth quarter. Beijing Novel-Tongfang Digital TV technology were the biggest supplier.



Taiwan’s handset sales rose 8% in January

by David Masters
Taiwan's mobile phone handset vendors have announced that January 2008 saw 651,900 handsets sold in Taiwan, an increase of 4% compared to December 2007, and 8% compared to the same period in the previous year. Nokia is Taiwan's first choice for a mobile handset, with a 32.7% market share in terms of unit sales. They are followed by Sony Ericsson, ...



February 25, 2008

First Cymru adds in-vehicle broadband from Moovera

by Jan Harris
First Cymru, a division of FirstGroup Plc, has choosen Moovera Networks' technology to provide broadband Internet connectivity and GPS-based vehicle tracking on its bus services in Wales. First Cymru's Shuttle100 fleet, which runs between Swansea and Cardiff, has been equipped with the Moovbox M100 mobile broadband gateway. This allows passengers to access broadband services at speeds of up to 1.8Mbps, and ...



WiMAX to become reality in the U.S.

by David Masters
WiMAX is set to become a reality in the U.S. as Sprint Nextel have received their first WiMAX routers from Zyxel Communications. The routers were exclusively designed by Zyxel for Sprint Nextel's WiMAX based XHOM services. Zyxel signed an agreement with Sprint Nextel in August 2007 to supply the U.S. telecoms service provider with WiMAX customer premises equipment (CPE). Shipments of ...