Author Archives: Pauline

Public money and broadband in France

NEXTGEN09, LEEDS — What’s the best way for local authorities to encourage the roll out of next-generation broadband without distorting competition? The French experience,
recounted by Gabrielle Gauthey, senior vice-president for public affairs at Alcatel-Lucent, seems to suggest that investing in backhaul is the right way to go. Continue reading

Posted in digitalbritain | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Backhaul bottlenecks

None of the consumer applications being discussed at Fibrecamp Britain today really require fibre, but in a perverse kind of way perhaps that’s a good thing. Today’s community networks are severely constrained by backhaul; until this problem is solved then innovative applications don’t stand a chance. Continue reading

Posted in digitalbritain | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Fibrecamp Britain: a reporter’s notes

It was standing room only at Fibrecamp this afternoon; a measure of the interest in providing high-speed broadband and next-generation access in the UK. Continue reading

Posted in digitalbritain | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Europe doles out funds for rural broadband

Amidst all the brouhaha over broadband stimulus funding in the US, it’s easy to forget that Europe has its very own economic stimulus package, called the European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP), with an allocation of €1.0 billion to be spent on … Continue reading

Posted in digitalbritain | Tagged , , | Comments Off

Digital inclusion: the numbers game

If you want to encourage people to use the internet, don’t appeal to their hearts and minds, appeal to their wallets. That seems to be the strategy of the UK’s Digital Inclusion Task Force, which says digitally excluded households are … Continue reading

Posted in digitalbritain | Tagged | Comments Off

France: landmark decision for fibre projects

The European Commission has given the green light to the largest ever government-backed fibre-to-the-home project in Europe. Continue reading

Posted in digitalbritain | Tagged , | Comments Off

Starting out with Samknows

Today I started a new gig — writing news for the website www.samknows.com. Continue reading

Posted in About this blog | Tagged , | Comments Off

When was the last time you read the newspaper in the loo?

The “Did you know? /Shift happens” video has been updated. Continue reading

Posted in Video | Tagged , | 1 Comment

French fibre ultimatum

The French President Nicolas Sarkozy has given the country’s four main telecoms operators just two weeks to come up with a solution for fibre-to-the-home. Continue reading

Posted in digitalbritain | Tagged , | Comments Off

FTTH global rankings – H1 2009

The message from the FTTH Councils is that it’s “business as usual” despite the recession. Continue reading

Posted in digitalbritain | Tagged | 1 Comment