UK Going For Technology Golds

The UK Government appear to be determined to raise the internet bar to win gold medals for the UK. Culture minister, Jeremy Hunt, claimed that the UK will have the "fastest broadband of any major European country by 2015. Like the Olympics the government is obsessed with speed and records and have released a further £300 million of funding. He claims some golden Olympic moments:

·         700GB/s were delivered from the BBC website delivered 700GB/s when Bradley Wiggins won gold.

·         On a peak day, 2.8PB (petabytes, over 2.9 million gigabytes) were downloaded.

·         Nearly a million people watched Andy Murray win gold online, with nine million following coverage on their mobiles.

·         London2012.com received over 20 billion views.

Mr Hunt has also stated intent to break the one gigabit speed barrier by supporting private firms in delivering fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) from 2016.

The mobile market is also to get faster. From October Orange and T-Mobile, which is the UK’s biggest mobile operator, with some 27% market share, will rebrand under the name Everything Everywhere (EE) in October. From the end of the first quarter 2013 the Orange and T-Mobile brands will be dropped and all existing customers will be migrated to EE. More importantly it will also launch 4G superfast mobile internet this year ahead of its rival UK operators.

4G is seen by many as vital for the further development of video, gaming and downloading and EE has been allowed to use its existing 1800 MHz spectrum to enable them to deliver first to the market. Its rivals have to enter into a 4G at the end of this year, which will then enable virtually everyone with the appropriate devices to be able to access to the faster network.

UK Going Mobile OnDemand

Figures released by UK industry watchdog Ofcom reveal in its report, Communications Market 2010, that a staggering 23% of the UK perform their online activities from a mobile device. They also claim that social networking is the most popular online activity and is increasingly going mobile in its use.

So as browsers in smartphones improve and tablets start to be accepted as the new device we now enter into a new phase of technology where we are continually connected 24x7 not just via the phone and email but socially and have whatever media on demand.

The question is how we balance our working needs and our private needs and whether social chat overtakes email and much more. Books may appear sexy today as ebooks but they are increasingly going to have to compete with much more media on the move. We assume that a book is a good read whilst commuting on a train but can it compete with video, TV, gaming and music on demand on the move?

Finally, how long before we ditch the mobile and get chipped? Where it takes the time to download to ‘read ‘ the book, where we interact in true real time with no keyboard or touch screen but move to the world of Pranav Mistry?

So where Do Read An eBook?

So we think we have to compete with the usual suspects for leisure and entertainment time? However it is clear that people’s habits young and old are changing. When there was nothing on TV they may have picked up a book but now not only is there an explosion of channels, music and radio on demand but tv is no longer restricted to a schedule.

The UK’s media regulator Ofcom claim some 29% of UK adults on the internet now watch or download TV programmes or films on demand and the majority of the usage is via the highly successful catch-up services of traditional broadcasters such as BBC iPlayer.
They also claim digital TV takeup among UK adults now stands at 89%, 73% have access to the internet and 91% own a mobile phone.

It was interesting to compare these significant numbers with those disclosed at TOC Frankfurt by Lexcycle COO and founder Neelan Choksi who claimed that 32% of ebooks where read in bed and a further 27% whilst commuting. This clearly shows that reading could be being squeezed hard by our apparent continued love of the TV and growing connection to the internet.

Mobile Broadband Harmony and Demand Fuels UK Change

The BBC report today that regulator Ofcom is planning to make a wider band of spectrum available for mobile broadband services than originally proposed as it auctions off the airwaves freed up by the shift to digital TV. It is proposing to make the whole 800MHz band available for mobile broadband and related services and find "alternative spectrum" for wireless microphones and digital terrestrial TV.

Pressure to harmonise with Europe with Finland, France, Sweden, and Switzerland all releasing the wider block and the drive for mobile broadband has driven the change and it also means that consumers will be able to use the same mobile services abroad that they can use at home.

Mobile broadband demand will continue. The GSM Association state that there are ‘200 mobile broadband networks across 94 countries with some 75m subscribers around the world, 26m of whom are in Europe’. It predicts that the global figure will rise to ‘1bn by 2012’ which is the year that much of the spectrum will be freed up.

For digital terrestrial TV viewers, it will result in a ‘minor’ change to all set-top boxes. The PSME industry (Programme Making and Special Events) now face eviction from Channel 69, which operates at the top of the 800Mhz band. Interestingly the British Entertainment Industry Radio Group (BEIR) state that this is the only channel where radio mics can be guaranteed to work from any location in the UK.

The PSME market is estimated to be worth some £15bn and range from concerts, live events, west end shows and anywhere where radio mics are used. The change will also impact equipment and some say that it could render up to 90% of this worthless. Ofcom puts a £80m price tag on affected equipment and has offered funding so that those being evicted do not have to bear extra costs as a result of the changes. The consultation period for the Ofcom proposals ends in mid-April.

Have You Time to Read This?

So how do people spend their leisure time? Have we turned away from the TV and being couch potatoes and become gizmo and Internet geeks?

A report from Ofcom, the UK telecommunications regulator gives us some insights as to the current position and potential trends. It estimates that in the last five years mobile phone usage in the UK has doubled whilst the use of PCs and laptops has quadrupled.

The average person spends some 8 hours asleep in bed but now spends nearly the same amount of time watching TV, on the phone, online or using other communications services. That leaves just 8 hours to work, shop, eat and do everything else! No wonder online shopping is becoming so popular!

One of the driving forces is the falling cost of communications and growth in broadband connectivity which itself was significantly boosted by the introduction of the mobile laptop ‘dongle’. Some 2 million people are now estimated to be connected via these wireless ‘dongles’. The report claims that 58% of UK homes now have broadband connectivity. Some 40% of broadband services are now bought as a bundled package which itself help fuel further convergence both in services and products and also consumer perceptions.

Even though some 87% of UK homes now have digital television with a wide choice of channels 57% of viewing remains with the five main channels.

It is also interesting to note that some 44% of adults use text and 36% access the Internet everyday. We would love to se the same analysis of children’s usage and would expect this to be significantly higher on both counts. Mobile phone usage has grow by some 21% but land line calls have remained static which obviously shows that the old BT advert worked and we are finding that ‘it’s good to talk’.