Broadband Internet Speed test

THE GALLOPING pace of technology change, sometimes throws up strange new terms and buzzwords. The latest is this business of `wireless cable’ — surely a contradiction in terms. How can a palpably wire-based delivery mechanism like cable be wireless?

As the Americans say, “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” The term is born out of the emerging digital convergence of communication and entertainment platforms. This is just one exciting, new technology that is emerging on the sidelines of the communication industry’s quest for the telecom holy grail: Triple Play. This is an omnibus term that broadly indicates that voice, video and data are all being moved to homes and offices along the same pipe.

The logic from the customer’s viewpoint is this: I have TV via cable and set top box; I have Internet via broadband — either through a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) or an Ethernet link. I have my mobile phone. And I have always had the Plain Old Telephone System (POTS) or landline phone connection. If only I could have all this serviced for me by one pipe and one provider.

The global telecom industry is presently saying to such customers: Thy wish is our command! And the ripples are just lapping up Indian shores. Consider:

— Reliance is starting to deploy its nationwide NetWay 100 Megabits per second (MBPS) fibre network to start sending Triple Play content to subscribers, probably starting with Internet and video on demand.

— Bharti have announced plans to extend their 40,000 km broadband cable network to 10 States before March 2006. Their recent partnership with the world’s biggest telecom player, Vodafone, almost certainly indicates an early plunge into the deep end of triple play.

— The Chennai-based Midas Communication recently unveiled a new product offering, Citius, where broadband triple play offerings can be sent over existing legacy Cable TV networks.

— MTNL and BSNL have invested heavily in the infrastructure to shift broadband services from fibre telephone lines to cable. The Tatas and their VSNL arm are morphing what was basically a dial up service into a lean and mean broadband offering nationwide.

Also on the radar of Triple Play providers is some thing being called IPTV — that is, TV delivered over an Internet Protocol network.

This does not mean the public Internet but a private IP network which will in effect transform the one-way experience of TV as we now know it into a two-way interactive experience.

We can check our mail on one part the screen, while the India-Sri Lanka One Day match is playing on another — to be enlarged to full screen only — when something exciting happens.

But if ARPU — the average revenue per user — after triple play, is set to rise sharply, so are the teething troubles. The level of complexity in moving such technology to the home or office customer is non-trivial.

Service Providers are aware that they will face steeply increased calls from customers if the hardware does not self-install or the quality of service deteriorates.

At their end they need to install new systems to address more sophisticated traffic management, filter and prioritise content and create appliance-aware firewalls. .

Which is why niche players like Bangalore and Redwood California (U.S.) based SupportSoft find themselves suddenly very popular. SupportSoft’s core offering is real time service management, arming telecom and Net service providers as well as connected corporates with the ability to retain customers and sustain competitive edge.

They do this with `zero touch’ programmes to remotely activate a customer service; `Smart Access’ software to automate the installation of a broadband connection ; even sending a `DNA Probe’ software agent to gather information about a user’s system — saving valuable time lost in voice calls.

Service automation is also about remote repair of malfunction. “It costs a thousand dollars to have a service expert make a site call; about $ 250 to have a high-end specialist in a call centre handle the complaint, $ 24 for a customer service representative (CSR)at the help desk solution and 43 cents for a contact via Internet chat.”

A toll free telephone Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system is about the same says Earl Hoskins, Senior Vice President in charge of customer support at Fidelity Investments.

The `sangam’ of voice, data and video may also see an emergence of compelling options like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and IP TV and may trigger off what is already being called Quadruple Play — the addition of mobile platforms via a wireless umbilical to the wired `trishul’ of technologies.

From an article on Triple Play in The Hindu.

A vulnerability has been reported in SpamAssassin, which can be exploited by malicious people to cause a DoS (Denial of Service).

The vulnerability is caused due to the use of an inefficient regular expression in “/SpamAssassin/Message.pm” to parse email headers. This can cause perl to crash when it runs out of stack space and can be exploited via a malicious email that contains a large number of recipients.

The vulnerability has been reported in version 3.0.4. Prior versions may also be affected.

Update to version 3.1.0.
Original advisory

Corning, one of the largest fiber optic cable manufacturers, has an article on why fiber optics is actually than copper.

From the article:
Over recent years, optical telecommunication technology has matured, while the performance requirements for premises networks have increased dramatically. The ever-increasing bandwidth requirements have driven significant increases in the cost of copper network systems, while technological maturity has led to relative declines in the cost of optical systems. In the light of these changes, the historical economic arguments against using fiber in the premises should be reexamined.

These days we demand increasingly higher performance from the premises network, but at the same time we expect “plug and play” installation, declining installation costs, and an increasing network lifecycle. Today the performance and cost advantages of optical fiber relative to copper technology in relation to modern premises networks applications are evident.

UK Online is rolling out its ADLS2+ service nationally now, but users will have to buy their own modem.

UK Online has become the first ISP in the UK to offer ADSL2+ nationally, promising speeds of up to 22Mbps.

The service will be available for £29.99 per month in most urban areas, UK Online said, although customers will need to buy an ADSL2+ compatible modem for £79.99 and pay a one-off connection charge of £25 — bucking the trend of modem giveaways among mainstream ISPs.

While the popularity of such high-speed services with consumers is yet to be proven, a 22Mbps service will certainly prove popular with Sky, which bought UK Online’s parent company Easynet in October of this year.

Read more on ZDNet UK.

Broadband access in South West England is to increase from 99% to 99.99% following a £1.3m cash injection.
The South West Regional Development Agency (RDA) is investing the money to upgrade 19 rural telephone exchanges.

The money will mean outlying businesses will be able to get access to high-speed internet connections.

The agency said money will ensure there was not a rural “digital divide” and said more money would be put aside to reach 100% access in the region.

The majority of the exchanges being upgraded are in Devon - 11 in total - with three in Somerset and two each in Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.

In Cornwall, North Tamerton will be converted alongside St Martins on the Scilly Isles.

Fabian King, from the South West RDA, said: “Remotely located companies need to be able to conduct business on a level playing field and not be at a disadvantage to their urban competitors.”

From BBC News.