Author Archives: Pauline

Fibre Tax Review Déjà Vu

The opponents of business rates on fibre must feel like Sisyphus – the mythological Greek figure compelled to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and condemned to repeat this exercise throughout eternity. Continue reading

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Broadband Definitions in Disarray

What is broadband? Governments around the world are developing multi-billion dolllar plans to deliver broadband infrastructure that will lead to social and economic development, and yet nobody agrees on what broadband is. Frankly, I’m shocked. Continue reading

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Taxing times for UK broadband

Business rates for fibre are a political minefield here in the UK. I don’t normally like venturing into minefields, but feel that the latest developments shouldn’t pass without comment. Continue reading

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An interview with Kathleen Maiman

Twelve years after the 40th anniversary of the laser, we are celebrating its 50th. That’s only possible because the 40th anniversary was a Bell Labs’ invention based on the date of the now famous Physical Review paper describing the theory of “Infrared and optical masers”. Continue reading

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Rewriting the history of the laser

Winston Churchill famously said that history is written by the victors. In the case of the laser it might be more accurate to say that history was written by those with the best public relations team. Continue reading

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Benoît on the FTTH Benefit Compendium

Why fibre? It’s a fundamental question for proponents of fibre-to-the-home, but it’s difficult to answer concisely or even clearly because the answer varies dramatically depending on where you reside in the FTTH ecosystem. Continue reading

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7 things I learned in Lisbon

Having just returned from the FTTH Conference in Lisbon, I thought I’d jot down my thoughts while they’re still fresh in my mind. Continue reading

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Broadband Lite? No thanks!

Does the expanding use of social media provide a good reason to deliver better broadband networks? Yes, says Eric Qualman, author of Socialnomics, and keynote speaker at the FTTH Conference in Lisbon. Continue reading

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NGA in the UK: the patchwork quilt

Although Britain was a leader in first-generation broadband, we’re definitely late to the party when it comes to next-generation access (NGA). But the transition to fibre access networks has finally begun, and one image particularly brings this message home to me. Continue reading

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Dutch broadband speeds don’t measure up

The Netherlands may be one of Europe’s leading broadband nations, but it’s suffering from a familiar problem – the actual broadband speeds received by consumers are significantly lower than advertised. A study carried out by Telecompaper in partnership with iPing … Continue reading

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