Mark.JUK - Slashdot User

Submission + - Welsh Scientists Develop 2,000 Times Faster Fibre Optic Broadband (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Tuesday November 06, 2012 @07:34AM

Mark.JUK writes: "Scientists working under an EU funded (3 Million Euros) project out of Bangor University in Wales (United Kingdom) have developed a commercially-exploitable way of boosting broadband speeds over end-user fibre optic lines by using Optical Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OOFDM) technology, which splits a laser down to multiple different optical frequencies (each of which can be used to carry data), and low-cost off-the-shelf components.

The scientists claim that their solution has the ability to "increase broadband transmission by up to two thousand times the current speed and capacity" (most UK Fibre-to-the-Home or similar services currently offer less than 100 Megabits per second) and it can do this alongside a “significant reduction in electrical power consumption“."

Submission + - UK Begins GBP35m Research Into 5G Mobile Broadband (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Tuesday October 09, 2012 @04:40AM

Mark.JUK writes: "The government of the United Kingdom has established a new £35 million partnership between international mobile phone operators, telecoms equipment makers and the University of Surrey (England) that looks set to help research and develop the 5th generation of ultrafast mobile broadband (5G) products and services.

At this stage it's still far too early to know precisely what any official 5G standard could end up looking like, although top transfer speeds of 10 to 100Gbps (Gigabits per second) are being debated."

Submission + - Sweden, USA and UK Top New 2012 Web Index Country Ranking (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Wednesday September 05, 2012 @08:36AM

Mark.JUK writes: "The non-profit World Wide Web Foundation, which is run by British WWW inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has today launched a new global 2012 Web Index that ranks countries around the world by a “multi-dimensional measure of the Web’s growth, utility and impact on people and nations” (e.g. broadband affordability, government policy towards internet use etc.). Overall the study found that Sweden was the best with a perfect 100 out of 100 score, followed by the United States (97.31), United Kingdom (93.83), Canada (93.42) and Finland (91.88). It also identified that two of the biggest barriers to wider web adoption and use were the high cost of broadband access and aggressive internet censorship measures."

Submission + - German Cable ISP First to Deliver 4700Mbps Internet Connection (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Thursday May 31, 2012 @07:07AM

Mark.JUK writes: "It's enough to make grown IT workers cry. German cable operator Kabel Deutschland claims to have become the "first" provider to successfully achieve a real-world internet connection speed of 4700Mbps (Megabits per second) after they hooked up to a local Schools test account in the city of Schwerin. The ISP, which usually delivers more modest speeds of up to 100Mbps to home subscribers, used its upgraded 862MHz network, channel bonding and the EuroDocsis 3.0 standard to achieve the stated performance. But don't expect to get this kind of speed tomorrow, right now there's no demand for it among home users and you probably couldn't afford the bandwidth anyway."

Submission + - Report Highlights 10 Sites Unfairly Blocked by UK Mobile Internet Censorship (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Monday May 14, 2012 @10:26AM

Mark.JUK writes: "The Open Rights Group (ORG), which works to raise awareness of digital rights and civil liberties issues, has published a new report that examines the impact of internet censorship on UK mobile networks and lists an example of 10 legitimate websites that often get unfairly blocked by adult content filters (over-blocking). The study is important because similar measures could soon be forced upon fixed line broadband ISP subscribers by the government. Some of the allegedly unfair blocks include censorship of the 'Tor' system, a privacy tool used by activists and campaigners across the globe, and the website of French ‘digital rights’ advocacy group 'La Quadrature du Net'."

Submission + - TV White Space 802.22 Wireless Broadband Trial in UK are a Success (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Wednesday April 25, 2012 @07:09AM

Mark.JUK writes: "A major multinational and ten month long trial of new 'White Space' technology (IEEE 802.22) in the United Kingdom, which uses the spare radio spectrum that exists between Digital Terrestrial TV (DTV) channels to deliver wireless internet access services over a wide area, has officially completed today and been deemed "successful". The technology, if approved, could one day help to bring faster broadband services to both isolated rural and urban areas.

The TV White Spaces Consortium, which comprises 17 international and UK technology and media companies (BT, Microsoft, BBC, Alcatel-Lucent etc.), has now recommended that the UK regulator, Ofcom, complete its development of the “enabling regulatory framework” (i.e. Draft Statutory Instrument) in a “manner that protects licensees” from “harmful” interference and encourages innovation and deployment."

Submission + - Home Gigabit Fibre Optic Broadband Services See Growth (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Wednesday April 18, 2012 @07:18AM

Mark.JUK writes: "The north American FTTH Council has published a new report that reveals how gigabit capable (i.e. 1000 Megabits per second) Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) broadband ISPs around the world, specifically those that offer services to home (domestic) users, appear to be growing in popularity and coming down in price.

The study, which is supported by research from both Telecom ThinkTank and RVA Market Research, notes that some Gigabit services now cost as low as US$26 (Hong Kong), although this rises all the way up to $560 for operators in Turkey (EU). This typically correlates with the capital expenditure required to pass a subscriber in the serving area (e.g. $200 per home in Hong Kong / $1,000 – $4,000 per home passed in Europe and North America).

Surprisingly many customers already seem able to take advantage of such services by using “multiple devices and multiple simultaneous applications“, such as HD video streams, multiplayer games and heavy social networking use."

Submission + - Genesis Wins UK Grant to Develop 400Mbps DSL-Rings Broadband Tech (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Monday April 16, 2012 @09:30AM

Mark.JUK writes: "Canadian firm Genesis Technical Systems (GTS) have won a significant new grant worth $400,000 CDN (GBP250,000) from the UK Technology Strategy Board to help it develop and conduct trials of its unique DSL Rings technology. GTS claims that its solution could push, at low power and low cost, broadband internet download speeds of up to 400Mbps (Megabits per second) down existing copper based telephone lines (i.e. two copper pairs) and even "over long distances".

The first field trial products should be ready for testing around the world by Q2-2012 and GTS expect that the first commercial deployment could begin as early as Q4-2012, which is the very same quarter where they plan to conduct their first official field trials."

Submission + - Global Mobile Internet Traffic Reaches 597 Petabytes Per Month (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Tuesday February 14, 2012 @07:24AM

Mark.JUK writes: "Cisco, a worldwide leader in networking and communications technology, has today released its annual Visual Networking Index (VNI) forecast for global mobile internet traffic. The study reveals that mobile data usage has skyrocketed from an average of 237 Petabytes per month in 2010 to 597 Petabytes (0.6 Exabytes) by the end of 2011 and it is now predicted to hit 10.8 Exabytes by 2016. Mobile video traffic (e.g. Netflix, YouTube etc.) continues to be the primary cause, accounting for 52% of all mobile data usage by the end of 2011 (up from 49.8% in 2010), and it could exceed 70% by 2016."

Submission + - Doubling Broadband Speeds Can Boost GDP by 0.3%+ (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Tuesday September 27, 2011 @11:37AM

Mark.JUK writes: "A joint scientific study conducted in 33 OECD countries by Ericsson, Arthur D. Little and Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) has claimed that governments which work to double the broadband internet access speeds for their citizens and businesses could benefit from an increase in annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 0.3% ($126 Billion in the OECD region). Likewise a quadrupling of ISP speed was found to equal a GDP growth stimulus of 0.6%.

Johan Wibergh, Ericsson's Head of Business Unit Networks, explained: "Broadband has the power to spur economic growth by creating efficiency for society, businesses and consumers. It opens up possibilities for more advanced online services, smarter utility services, telecommuting and telepresence. In health care, for instance, we expect that mobile applications will be used by 500 million people.""

Submission + - Alcatel-Lucent Boosts Copper Broadband to 100Mbps (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Thursday September 22, 2011 @04:55AM

Mark.JUK writes: "Telecommunications giant Alcatel-Lucent has today become the first-to-market with VDSL2 Vectoring technology which, it claims, will push the top broadband internet access speeds of existing copper telephone lines over 100Mbps and without needing to bond multiple lines together. Vectoring is essentially a "noise cancellation" method (similar, in principal, to the technology found in some headphones) that works to cancel out background noise / interference (i.e. crosstalk) and can thus boost performance and reach (coverage) by between 25% and 100%.

The president of Alcatel-Lucent's Wireline Division, Dave Geary, explained: "With our enhanced broadband portfolio, including VDSL2 Vectoring and recent innovations in next-generation fiber, operators can deliver new services and generate new revenue, quickly. Our objective is to help operators – and nations — ‘get to fast, faster’. For operators this means shortening the time needed to recoup their investments, and making it easier for them to meet various national broadband goals.""

Submission + - Scientists Map Spiralling Light for Faster Net (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Friday August 26, 2011 @09:21AM

Mark.JUK writes: "Scientists' working at New York's Institute of Ultrafast Spectroscopy and Lasers (IUSL) have discovered a new way of mapping the multiple higher channels / more complex light in an optical fibre (i.e. fibre optic cable), which could allow telecommunications operators the ability to harness "untapped data channels" and thus improve broadband speeds and internet capacity across the world. Critically the new model allows scientists to follow polarization and other changes as light travels, which also gives you an insight into the material that it travels through. Until recently it wasn't possible to map such light but all that has changed thanks to the globe-shaped Higher Order Poincare Sphere (HOPS) model. Professor Robert Alfano explains: "The sphere facilitates understanding, showing phase vortices are on poles and vector beams are on the equator. It organizes the relationship between these vortices of light. This kind of organization on the higher level Poincaré Sphere could clear the path to a number of novel physics and engineering efforts.""

Submission + - 800Mbps Wireless Network Made with LED Light Bulbs (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Tuesday August 02, 2011 @08:44AM

Mark.JUK writes: "German scientists working at Berlin's Fraunhofer Institute for Telecommunications have set a new world record for Visible Light Communication (VLC) technology after they succeeded in using regular red, blue, green and white LED (Light-Emitting Diode) light bulbs as the basis for building a new 800Mbps (Megabits per second) capable ultrafast Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN). Dr. Anagnostis Paraskevopoulos explained: "With the aid of a special component, the modulator, we turn the LEDs off and on in very rapid succession and transfer the information as ones and zeros. The modulation of the light is imperceptible to the human eye. A simple photo diode on the laptop acts as a receiver. The diode catches the light, electronics decode the information and translate it into electrical impulses, meaning the language of the computer." The solution, which could be installed on ceilings and would cover approximately 10 square meters, would be ideal for HD video streaming and inside Hospitals or Aircraft where traditional Wi-Fi is often banned. However visible light signals can easily be blocked, such as when a hand is passed in front of the transmitter."

Submission + - UK ISP BT Forced by Court to Block Piracy Websites (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Thursday July 28, 2011 @06:26AM

Mark.JUK writes: "British Telecom (BT), a major national internet and telecoms operator for the United Kingdom (UK), has today been forced by the High Court of Justice in London to block access to a Newsgroup (Usenet) indexing website called Newzbin2. The case, which had originally been brought by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) late last year using Section 97A of the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, could open the floodgates and result in all broadband Internet Service Providers (ISP) in the country being forced to block access to any website that is deemed to facilitate "illegal" internet copyright infringement.

Presiding Judge, Justice Arnold, ruled : "In my judgment it follows that BT has actual knowledge of other persons using its service to infringe copyright: it knows that the users and operators of Newbin2 infringe copyright on a large scale, and in particular infringe the copyrights of the Studios in large numbers of their films and television programmes, it knows that the users of Newzbin2 include BT subscribers, and it knows those users use its service to receive infringing copies of copyright works made available to them by Newzbin2.

In general, I am satisfied that the order sought by the Studios is a proportionate one. It is necessary and appropriate to protect the Article 1 First Protocol rights of the Studios and other copyright owners. Those interests clearly outweigh the Article 10 rights of the users of Newzbin2, and even more clearly outweigh the Article 10 rights of the operators of Newzbin2. They also outweigh BT’s own Article 10 rights to the extent that they are engaged.

The order is a narrow and targeted one, and it contains safeguards in the event of any change of circumstances. The cost of implementation to BT would be modest and proportionate."

BT will now have to adapt its Cleanfeed system, which is normally used to block child sexual abuse content, to include the infringing website. The move is also likely to put significantly more pressure upon ISPs to agree a new Voluntary Code of Practice for handling related blocks."

Submission + - OECD Calls for ISPs to Police Internet Copyright (ispreview.co.uk)

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Mark.JUK

on Wednesday June 29, 2011 @05:44AM

Mark.JUK writes: "The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has been heavily criticised by over 80 civil society groups, through the Civil Society Information Society Advisory Council (CSISAC), after it issued a new draft statement on the 'Principles for Internet Policy-Making', which effectively called for internet providers (ISP) to "take steps to [...] assist rights holders in enforcing their rights or reduce illegal content" online.

CSISAC members were particularly concerned by the various qualifications within the text limiting access guarantees to 'lawful' content. This raised several concerns. For example, it is not clear how and by whom 'lawfulness' will be determined, specifically with respect to content that is not inherently illegal, in that its "legality is contingent on the applicability of exceptions" (i.e. Rights Holders might ask for a perfectly legal website, such as Google, to be blocked just because of links to copyright works and without a fair trial).

The group also believes that ISPs should "not be called upon to make determinations about the legality of content passing through their networks and platforms because they are neither competent nor appropriate parties to do so." CSISAC also referenced the statements "over-emphasis" on protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights, often "at the expense of fundamental freedoms"."

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