Hop 255

Googlefight

Put in two keywords and see which one scores the most at Googlefight.

Skype Banned in French Research Institutions

French authorities in research institutes and universities seem to have taken a contrary view to Skype and said Non!  A number of French VoIP programs are now available. So is it a question of security or competition? VoIP networks are relatively new and emerging, compared to the PSTN, and in that sense that all are looking for externalities. 

BBC Test Broadcast over WiMax

BBC conduct test broadcast over WiMAX.

Inveneo

A nice good news WiFi story can be read at Inveneo's website. They have a deployment enabling telephony, using VoIP and WiFi in Uganda, in villages that previously had no PSTN service. What is more they have overcome the lack of power by employing solar power and pedal power. Neither are new with pedal radio being having been used by Australia's Royal Flying Doctor Service and School of the Air Service in their early days.  Wired has a good write up here with more information. Alex Saunders log also has a write up with useful links.

BT Communicator versus Skype

When BT launched its VoIP service -- BT Communicator -- the prices, for calling fixed and mobile numbers, werethe same rate as calls from the PSTN. Calls to other users of Communicator were, of course, free. Just over a year on, however, BT's service hads only signed up about 50,000 users while watching Skype's numbers escalate. One reason for Skype's popularity is the lower charges for SkypeOut's international calls.  With that in mind BT has leaked advance news today, to the UK Sunday Times, that it intends to offer calls to 27 countries at less half the price of Skype. The Sunday Times also reports that Plusnet, a UK service provider, will be able to call other VoIP users for free, and will be charged £3.99 a month to make up to 3,000 minutes of calls to national, international and mobile set at numbers. Presumably the details of both companies' offers wil be available this week.

Fastest Broadband Ranking

There are a lot of comparisons of the advertised speed of broadband offerings in different countries. What gets delivered, however, can be dependent of a number of factors (e.g. the contention ratio, distance from an exchange with DSL and so forth). In the UK a new net based on demand television service has been launched. It is called greengrass.tv perhaps after the character of the same name in Heartbeat. Worthy of note is the speed test.  While there are a number of these on the net this is the first that I have seen that has a ranking by country of the actual throughput of users who have tried the service.  As at today Korea is leading, followed by the US and Germany. Perhaps some Japanese users with fibre connections could lift the average benchmark to a higher level for that country.

Average for Top 10 Countries
	KR	5.54 Mbps
	US	4.10 Mbps
	DE	3.65 Mbps
	FR	2.71 Mbps
	JP	1.91 Mbps
	IT	1.83 Mbps
	CN	1.81 Mbps
	BE	1.77 Mbps
	UK	1.08 Mbps
	AU	1.05 Mbps

Navigator Combo

Nice GPS device writen up at engadget. The Navigator combo combines MP3 player with GPS and 30 Gbytes hard drive. No mention of price at engadget.

Slingbox

Hop255 has looked before at devices to watch television over the net. Sony's location free tv is here but with an annoying website. This is an expensive option and doesn't seem to have set the world on fire. For users in NTSC countries Slingbox probably provides a better and more economical option. Unfortunately no PAL version available yet but they say it is scheduled for 2006.  Great for users who have a fast upstream broadband connection and no bitcap. For content providers another nail in the divide and price strategy. They should get over it and sell their content direct on the net so people don't have to bother with such devices. In the mean time the single stream put out by slingboxes might start to increase Internet traffic between countries where inexpensive broadband connections are available. Great for expats everywhere.

NetAppel (NetApell)

NetAppel, a French VoIP provider, appears to be offering free calls to fixed lines in Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.  They would still have to pay the PSTN termination charge in these countries so where is the catch?  It could, of course, just be promotional and for a limited time. On the other hand, their prices to a lot of countries are cheaper than Skype at 1 eurocent per minute.  If termination can be had for less than a cent how long before other start giving it away, as marginal cost, with whatever they are selling. Advertisers pay are paying anything from $0.30 to more than a $1 for country names as keywords at Overture. How long before eyeballs are targeted as we speak?

PhoneGnome

PhoneGnome is a device which connects to a port in a broadband router enabling users to make free calls over the net to other phonegnome users.  You can plug any phone into it and you don't need a computer.  It is also possible to make calls to the PSTN using one of their packages.  Prices are not bad but not as good as Skype. Begs the question if two users both have broadband why they don't talk using any run of the mill VoIP provider.  Main attraction seems to be the convenience of not switching on a computer and having virtual dedicated line to a few other users. Externalities would, of course, kick in if they can grow the number of users and they are offering $30 to anyone who signs up someone else.  But hard to see momentum building. Overall a nice product if you only need one or two of these and don't expect to call a lot of other users. Otherwise why bother?