Hasta La Gadget!

Streaming online television services appears to be the next big thing in the Valley — at least, if you ask Google, Apple, Intel and other tech giants that are considering making a move in that direction. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has approached several media companies about licensing TV channels for such a service, which involves offering cable TV-like channel packages over broadband. This wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen the folks at Mountain View putting feelers out, as the company opened up discussions with media companies two years ago. Nothing came of them, of course, but it’s hard to say if the current conversations will meet the same fate — a couple years is a long time in the industry, and things may be different enough to merit a more appealing offer on either side, especially given the rise of Netflix, Roku, Amazon Instant and others. A report from the New York Times indicates that these talks are still likely preliminary and not anywhere close to a deal, so we shouldn’t anticipate watching new TV shows live on our Google TV anytime soon.

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, HD, Google

Comments

Source: Wall Street Journal

Despite receiving hundreds of millions of pounds in government subsidies, the effort to bring high-speed internet to rural parts of the UK seems to be running seriously behind schedule. The National Audit Office (NAO) says the original goal of providing 90 percent of Brits with access to at least a 25Mbps connection by May 2015 will likely be pushed back to the end of 2016 — and at a cost that’s £207 million ($312 million) more than first anticipated. A big part of the problem, according to the NAO, is a lack of competition among those bidding to help with the project. BT has already been awarded more than half of the local contracts and no other company is in the running to scoop up what’s left. As well as slowing things down, this effective monopoly may also be adding to the financial pain; whereas before the government expected BT to foot 36 percent of the bill, that’s now dropped to just 23 percent. Microsoft’s whitespace idea could avoid all these issues, but in terms of schedules it seems just as remote.

Comments

Source: The Telegraph

Think you’re carrying a tad too much debt? Spanish telecom giant Telefónica wants to reduce its red ink to 47 billion euros ($62 billion) by the end of the year, so it’s decided to sell its Irish mobile and broadband business to Hutchison Whampoa’s Three for 850 million euros ($1.1 billion). If regulators approve the deal, it’ll let Telefónica hack about 750 million euros of debt from its books, while giving Three a 37.5 percent share of the nation’s mobile business and a strong number two position behind Vodafone. The deal follows a £200 million ($273 million) sale of Telefónica’s fixed phone line business to Sky. Considering the whopping level of debt, though, that may be just the start.

[Image credit: Wikimedia Commons]

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet

Comments

Via: WSJ (subscription)

Dish has so far had to be content with offering broadband over its existing satellite network, but the company has made no secret of wanting a terrestrial service. The carrier can now do more than talk about those plans: it just launched a pilot LTE service in rural Virginia with nTelos’ help. The test run supplies 2.5GHz wireless internet access to a handful of homes near Afton and Waynesboro, with speeds hovering at a respectable 20Mbps to 50Mbps. Neither provider is ready to talk about where the trial goes from here, although Dish is ambitious enough to see all of an underserved rural America as its potential customer base. We have a hunch that the company would like to pick up a little more spectrum before its dreams come true.

Filed under: Wireless, Internet

Comments

Source: Dish

I’ve traveled to remote islands in the South Pacific where wireless internet is proving to be the go-to technology for broadband, and increasingly, it’s looking as if tether-less connections will be what brings millions upon millions of Africans online. Google’s own Eric Schmidt has confessed as recently as March that the most exciting part of the web’s future isn’t any one technology or product, but the “next five billion people looking to get connected.” So, it figures that Google was a major constituent at the recent TV White Spaces & Dynamic Spectrum Africa Forum in Dakar, Senegal. It — along with 15 African nations, Microsoft, the Association for Progressive Communications, Afrinic and others — recently convened in order to discuss the opportunities that are currently facing the continent. Indeed, the fact that there is over 90MHz available in Dakar alone to be used for wireless broadband deployment puts Africa in a unique spot — one of the most disconnected regions of our planet could become a pioneer in bringing the next wave of humans online.

ICASA, the South African regulator, will reportedly use various trial outcomes to evaluate possible rules for use of the TV white spaces. And, as Steve Song of Village Telco points out, it’s pretty astounding to have Microsoft and Google working in some fashion towards a similar goal. As it stands, a lot has to happen — final standards have to be agreed upon, equipment makers have to decide that it’s a profitable enterprise, and individual nations have to place a high priority on getting their populations connected. That said, the amount of momentum that’s already happening is supremely compelling, and I’m hoping to report back in the coming months on how a smattering of these very trials are impacting communities across Africa right now. Stay tuned!

Filed under: Wireless, Internet

Comments

Source: Official Google.org Blog, Many Possibilities