Category Telecoms

Breaking The Law…

…or how ‘Le Sénat français a décidé de violer la législation europeénne’. Sarkozy’s authoritarianism seems to be behind this. Yet it puzzles me how violating EU legislation can be so easily accepted by the Senate: « 1° La suspension de l’accès au service pour une durée de trois mois à un an assortie de l’impossibilité, […]

I can say it's a good start

And that's about all it is. Mediocre now, but promising. Lacking in features, but open. A relatively dated foundation in some respects, but one that's accessible to everyone. Android may not be what people expected; it's nowhere near being an iPhone killer and the software experience could definitely use some polish --- it's without a doubt firmly in the 1990s. But Android innovates too; if not just because it's open, because it is full of extremely innovative concepts --- concepts that can primarily happen in an open environment. Take for example 'intents'. In the end, I'm sure the G1 is going to be 'ok'. Nothing special. But it wasn't meant to be. It's a 1.0, by a company that has no experience in that sort of thing, but at the same time has most of the mindshare.

Δικτυακή Ουδετερότητα στην Ευρώπη. Το Κράτος ως Ρυθμιστής.

Η δικτυακή ουδετερότητα είναι ένα ζήτημα που φέρνει κοντά πολύ κόσμο που κατανοεί την αξία της ελευθερίας του επιχειρείν, της έκφρασης και της επικοινωνίας στο διαδίκτυο, ανεξαρτήτως της ευρύτερης ιδεολογίας του και πολιτικών θέσεων. Θεωρητικά, η βέλτιστη προσέγγιση στο θέμα της ουδετερότητας — και με την οποία τείνω να συμφωνήσω — θέλει τη πολιτεία να […]

Web 3.0™. The Latest in EU Buzzwords.

Absolute BullIt's not as if any government anywhere (let alone the European Commission) ever preempted technological innovation and successfully regulated it, before it even became reality. Take for example what happened with Biofuel in the EU. Or renewables. Or, as a matter of fact, the 'net itself. So it actually begs the question: What on earth were the (seemingly clueless) bureaucrats that drafted this press release thinking when they coined their own pointless buzzword (as if there aren't enough already) in 'Web 3.0' and proceeded in presenting their equally pointless milestones and grand vision, when the EU funding for broadband has rivalled Gore's Information Superhighway in waste, frivolousness and incoherence? In spite of the lack of substance in the press release, there are some good parts in the related Commission report, The Future Networks and the Internet. Nope, it's not the internet of 'things' or 'stimulating investment in high-speed broadband' or --- ironically --- 'building the net of the future'. Instead I found keeping the 'net open and guaranteeing availability to be the most useful (and realistic) of the themes presented in the report. In any case, thinking about the future is commendable and could prove extremely wise; the way the Commission attempts to achieve it seems completely wrong and betrays ignorance of how and why technology such as the 'net can have such a disruptive effect in society (hint: yep, lack of regulation definitely had something to do with it). A public consultation on the 'early challenges of the Internet of Things' is open until the 28th of November.

Data Only LLU ADSL από τη Forthnet

Η Forthnet ξεκίνησε τη παροχή ενός LLU πακέτου με μόνον απεριόριστη ADSL πρόσβαση στο διαδίκτυο (διατίθεται και τηλεφωνική γραμμή αλλά χωρίς πάγιο. Οι κλήσεις κοστίζουν.), ονόματι Forthnet ADSL Economy. Αν μετακόμιζα και έπαιρνα νεα γραμμή, εφ'όσον είχα εξασφαλίσει πως θα είχα σταθερό κύκλωμα ADSL*, μάλλον θα το επέλεγα, δεδομένου του ότι κάνω το 99% των κλήσεων μου μέσω VoIP ή/και κινητού. Ενδιαφέρον. * Σε πάρα πολλές περιπτώσεις τα κυκλώματα ADSL είναι αρκετά ασταθή λόγω α. απόστασης από το DSLAM, β. κακής καλωδίωσης εντός κτηρίου ή/και του ΟΤΕ και (δυστυχώς) γ. κακών ρυθμίσεων των DSLAM από τους παροχείς. Εαν κάποιος σκοπεύει να χρησιμοποιήσει μια γραμμή ADSL για VoIP τηλεφωνία είναι απαραίτητη η εξασφάλιση μιας σταθερής γραμμής πριν την επιλογή ενός data-only πακέτου.

Comcast. Greedy. Liars. [Updated]

After consistently denying it for months, Comcast just admitted they were throtlling a number of protocols since 2007. After FCC ordered them to abandon the practice in early August, they admitted to throttling traffic using a Sandvine Policy Traffic Switch 8210. The company stated they are going to change the way they manage their network by 2009. According to Comcast spokewoman Sena Fitzmaurice "The new technique does not manage congestion based on the protocol or application a consumer uses. This new technique will ensure that all customers get their fair share of bandwidth every hour of the day". In my view they are lying and greedy and if FCC was doing its job right they should have been fined considerably high for others not to imitate them. Their admission comes almost 45 days after the FCC ruling and proves how much regulation is required to keep greedy businesses in line. Regarding their upcoming 'network management' policy, I'm somewhat puzzled. In particular, I'm not quite sure how they'll ensure a fair share of bandwidth without selective throttling (or any other classification technique that would --- again --- violate the Net Neutrality rules), unless they radically change their offering to a quota-based range of offerings, place relatively low speed caps on everyone for sustained connections or increase their network bandwidth by an astronomical amount. We'll see. Update: ArsTechnica seems to have the details. Apparently the system is going to be use 'shallow packet inspection' and packet-counting triggers for throttling. It does seem ridiculous and completely unacceptable, given that many legitimate applications actually depend on high packet throughput to function properly (VoIP is a good example here). Of course, without first seeing how this works in practice it's hard to judge it, but either way either the FCC will stomp on them once again or the system is going to function without enough disruption to Comcast's (sad) subscribers.

iΠακέτα ηλιθιότητας

Η Vodafone Ελλάς ανακοίνωσε τη διαθεσιμότητα του iPhone 3G της Apple στην χώρα μας. Πέραν τις ιδιαίτερα ακριβής τιμής απόκτησης του τηλεφώνου (ιδιαίτερα για τα ελληνικά δεδομένα), η Vodafone κατάφερε να δημιουργήσει κάποια από τα αθλιότερα πακέτα που έχω αντικρύσει διεθνώς, σε βαθμό που ακυρώνουν πολλά από τα χαρακτηριστικά του iPhone (250MB μηνιαίως;), τόσο σε απόλυτη τιμή όσο και αν λάβει κανείς το πραγματικό εισόδημα του μέσου έλληνα. [Γράφει σχετικά και ο Γιώργος στο Reality-Tape]

Επίσκεψη στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο

Τη περασμένη Παρασκευή, 18 Ιουλίου 2008, έλαβα μια πρόσκληση από την ομάδα Ευρωβουλευτών του ΠΑΣΟΚ για μια επίσκεψη στο Ευρωπαϊκό Κοινοβούλιο στις Βρυξέλλες όπου θα πραγματοποιηθεί σειρά συναντήσεων με Ευρωβουλευτές, σχετικούς Επιτρόπους της Επιτροπής καθώς, εκπροσώπους κάποιων ιδιαίτερα γνωστών Μη-Κυβερνητικών Οργανισμών (π.χ. Statewatch, EFF μεταξύ άλλων) αλλά φυσικά και αρκετών bloggers, πάνω στο θέμα της […]

An Empty Promise?

Ars Technica writes of the recent controversy on Google's commitment to an open source Android, the transparency of the development process and the availability of the SDK. Valid criticism for the most part, but no conclusive proof of Google's bad intentions. Yet, it'd really be a shame if Google, a company that hasn't really faltered until now, misses its chance in the mobile phone industry through the alienation of the community and the betrayal of its own values.

Marginally better than expected.

But certainly worse than what I hoped for. The iPhone 3G is a marginally improved device that builds upon the very solid foundations of the first iPhone by adding 3G connectivity (though without the video conferencing part) and version 2.0 of the software and does this at a significantly reduced price --- which is probably the highlight of the keynote. It's also available in many more countries, including Hellas. While I may get my hands on one pretty soon, I still think that the Nokia N95 is a superior device in many ways, and one that's mostly hurt by the vastly inferior (from a usability point of view) application software stack. The new iPhone seems like a buffer solution to the consumerism that brands the original as 'old' and whose price and attractive featureset, augmented by a software ecosystem, wider availability and faster network performance are certainly going to serve as catalysts while it becomes a(n even more) mainstream product and expand Apple's market share in this difficult market. That is, until a much evolved model appears in 12-18 months from today. Update: I've already read several comments about the contract prices in various countries; it'll be interesting to see how this plays out in Europe and especially in Hellas, a country where mobile internet access costs about 70% more than the US. If 3G access is forced onto consumers buying the iPhone (which it will), the adjusted $199-$299 price points won't make a difference to people --- especially if the contract means a monthly cost higher than €30. Update 2: It is now blatantly clear that the price reduction, even in the US, is marginal at best; the new contract coupled with higher prices for data connectivity make the new iPhone cheap to buy, but expensive to maintain.