Easy to Read Articles » broadband

Sky will launch an internet based TV service in the UK in the first half of 2012

EasyReadArticles.com — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 07:05:00 +0000

UK pay TV service Sky has just announced its quarterly results, and despite adding 100,000 subscribers as well as notching its “highest ever first-half adjusted operating profit” it will launch a new internet TV service, available to anyone in the country with a broadband connection. Sky describes the new service as being aimed at the 13 million UK households who don’t currently subscribe to pay TV, with access available via “PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone, games console or connected TV.” Initially, the service will offer Sky Movies on demand joined by sports and entertainment options later, with access based on either monthly unlimited subscription or “pay-as-you-go” pricing. As far as the company’s basic services, it will continue to develop its existing Sky Go product for standard pay-TV subscribers and zeebox iPad companion app, although this seems to initially be a worth competitor for things like Lovefilm and recent UK entrant Netflix. We have plenty of questions about what it will offer cord-cutters and cord-nevers in the UK when it launches in the first half of this year, we should find out more on the earnings call shortly. Until then, hit the PDF link for more detailed financial breakdowns, or check out the IPTV service press release after the break.

Continue reading Sky will launch an internet based TV service in the UK in the first half of 2012

Sky will launch an internet based TV service in the UK in the first half of 2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Earnings (PDF) | Email this | Comments

Israel announces plans to build national broadband network, increases fiber intake

EasyReadArticles.com — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:35:00 +0000

Israel is home to a burgeoning tech industry, but the country’s broadband infrastructure hasn’t really been able to keep pace. In terms of broadband penetration, in fact, Israel ranks just 21st out of 34 developed nations, according to statistics gathered by the OECD. All this may be changing, however, now that the country’s state-run electric company has announced plans to create a new national broadband network. According to the AP, the forthcoming network will use so-called fiber to the home (FTTH) technology, which is capable of providing connections at speeds of between 100Mbps and 1Gbps. That would be about ten to 100 times faster than the connections most Israelis have today, and could offer obvious benefits to a wide array of businesses and industries. The electric company is aiming to have 10 percent of the country connected to its new network by next year, and to have two-thirds covered within the next seven years.

Israel announces plans to build national broadband network, increases fiber intake originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | AP (The Australian) | Email this | Comments

ViaSat-1 sends its first words through the stratosphere to cooing stateside relatives

EasyReadArticles.com — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 01:04:00 +0000

The ViaSat-1 story seems to be orbiting its way toward a happy ending in time for Christmas. The world’s highest capacity telecommunications satellite sent down its first words on December 2nd: sadly it didn’t chime a romantic “Mommy!” but a somber collection of high-bandwidth video streams, emails and websites. It’ll continue back-and-forth testing, probably sending back pictures of red firetrucks until mid-December, which is when the company will assume “full control” (handed over from Space Systems / Loral) of the orbiting router and begin prepping commercial service before the end of the year. At which point, it’ll be available to cover the US, Canada and Hawaii with KA-Band broadband service with partners WildBlue, Xplornet and JetBlue domestic flights.

Continue reading ViaSat-1 sends its first words through the stratosphere to cooing stateside relatives

ViaSat-1 sends its first words through the stratosphere to cooing stateside relatives originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 09 Dec 2011 21:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | ViaSat | Email this | Comments

AT&T demos speedy LTE, calls 28.8Mbps downloads realistic for real people

EasyReadArticles.com — Thu, 19 May 2011 23:34:00 +0000

GigaOM got to peek inside inside AT&T’s Foundry innovation center in Texas this week, and the tour came with a special treat — a first glimpse at how AT&T’s upcoming LTE network might perform when the carrier flips the switch later this year. Where Verizon’s existing network promises download speeds of between 5 and 12 megabits per second (though we’ve gotten far better and worse in practice), the publication witnessed a connection with 28.87Mbps download and 10.4Mbps upload speeds, using a MIMO antenna passing bits through both 700MHz and AWS frequencies. “But,” you protest, “isn’t LTE capable of more?” Sure, but an AT&T executive told the publication that these were meant to be real-world numbers. Still, considering all the factors and where the test was held, it’s probably best to break out the table salt for now.

AT&T demos speedy LTE, calls 28.8Mbps downloads realistic for real people originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 May 2011 19:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | GigaOM | Email this | Comments

PSA: AT&T DSL and U-Verse landline internet caps begin tomorrow, if you can see this website

EasyReadArticles.com — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:16:00 +0000

Tomorrow is May 2nd, 2011, and you know what that means — tomorrow is the day that AT&T will impose data caps on DSL and U-Verse Internet, and begin tallying up overage fees. At least, that was the plan on March 18th — when the company formally announced 150GB DSL and 250GB U-Verse caps — but even if you’re a paying customer who chows down several hundred gigabytes in a month, you may not have to worry about paying extra right away. AT&T specified that folks like yourself will have access to an online tool to self-police your usage before the company even begins to calculate the cost of your formerly all-you-can-eat bandwidth buffet, and as you can see in the picture above, the tool isn’t quite ready for public consumption across the entire country. Scoot on over to our source link, enter your AT&T ID, and if you see the same, perhaps you won’t have to cancel your 700-hour Star Trek marathon quite yet.

PSA: AT&T DSL and U-Verse landline internet caps begin tomorrow, if you can see this website originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 May 2011 13:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | AT&T My Usage | Email this | Comments

PSA: AT&T DSL and U-Verse landline internet caps begin tomorrow, if you can see this website

EasyReadArticles.com — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:16:00 +0000

PSA: AT&T DSL and U-Verse landline internet caps begin tomorrow, if you can see this website originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 01 May 2011 13:16:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | AT&T My Usage | Email this | Comments

Fiber optics get political in Australia as opposition party vows to scale down national broadband plan

EasyReadArticles.com — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 01:50:00 +0000

When Australia goes to the polls on August 21st, citizens will vote for more than men and the traditional issues they represent — the ballots cast will directly impact the country’s national broadband plan. Where Australia’s ruling Labor party had pledged A$43 billion for an up-to-100Mbps fiber optic network fed directly to 90 percent of homes (and agreed to pay A$11 billion to Telstra) over the next seven to eight years, the opposing Liberal-National coalition says if elected, it will scrap that notion in favor of a cheaper A$6.3 billion plan. That money would create a fiber-optic backbone by 2017 but actually connects homes with hybrid fiber-coaxial connections, DSL and about A$2 billion worth of wireless, with a minimum promised speed of 12Mbps. The coalition says these services would cover 97 percent of Australians, with satellite coverage for the final 3 percent, and that those networks receiving funds from the project and connecting to the backbone would have to compete based on pricing (set by the country’s Competition and Consumer Commission) and pledge open access. Having never lived in Australia ourselves, we don’t know what’s best, but we’re pretty sure we wouldn’t be satisfied with the 12Mbps end of the Liberal-National stick.

Fiber optics get political in Australia as opposition party vows to scale down national broadband plan originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Liberal Party of Australia | Email this | Comments

PPC-1 to carry one third of Internode’s international traffic.

Easy Read — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:28:09 +0000

Wow finally some promise, better broadband in Australia and with my favourite ISP leading the way

Internode has successfully conducted end-to-end packet flow tests between Australia and the US using Pipe’s PPC-1, Australia’s latest international fibre-optic link. – IT News AUS

PPC-1, an undersea cable that links Sydney with the western Pacific island of Guam, delivers a significant increase in Australia’s international data interconnection, thereby reducing data transfer costs. From Guam, Internode uses other cable systems to link through to the US and beyond.

Internode has reshaped and simplified its broadband plan table by launching more than 40 new plans with boosted data quotas for established price points and culling more than 80 redundant plans from its line-up. – Internode

Some links for further reading.

SA pigeon. Faster than broadband?

Easy Read — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:27:33 +0000

Hehe I was just looking around on the BBC website and came across this, thought it was pretty cool to post on.

Broadband promised to unite the world with super-fast data delivery – but in South Africa it seems the web is still no faster than a humble pigeon.

A Durban IT company pitted an 11-month-old bird armed with a 4GB memory stick against the ADSL service from the country’s biggest web firm, Telkom.