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Bulgaria: Socio-economic Benefits of Broadband

On November 10, 2010   /   Access, Reviews, The Blog   /   2 Comments

About a week ago the FTTH Council run a webinar presenting research findings on the socio-economic impact of fiber broadband in Bulgaria. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to watch it live so I found it, kudos to Pauline, on vimeo. You can watch the presentation at the end of the post, but before that, here’s a quick summary of what is going down in the country:

  • New regulatory measures and stricter requirements for operating a telecommunications networks brings to the fore a growing trend of consolidations among ISPs.
  • Internet impact is highlighted especially in terms of access to information, working conditions and practical life
  • Percentage of satisfied broadband customers: 85% of all FTTB users, 75% of cable users and 60% of all DSL users.
  • FTTB encourages tele-working
  • 66% of the Bulgarians consider that the availability of a broadband connection influences the selection of residence

Video Webinar 4 November 2010 – Socio-Economic Benefits of Bulgarian Fibre Broadband from paftthcouncileu on Vimeo.

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Global Broadband Speeds in 2010

On July 28, 2010   /   Reviews, The Blog   /   3 Comments

NetIndex of Ookla reported yesterday the household download index as it is calculated from SPEEDTEST.NET measurements.

What clearly stands out is the trend of speed increase the last 6 months (for whom the study reports).
Okla report1 Global Broadband Speeds in 2010There are a few things not truly I was surprised to see in the reported data, probably the biggest surprise came from Singapore having an average of 5.54Mbps download speed. A thorough look into the source data could reveal more. Luckily, the good guys at Ookla let you in, in case you feel like digging a little further.

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World Economic Forum: ICT as enabler for growth

On March 29, 2010   /   Reviews   /   3 Comments

World Economic Forum in cooperation with INSEAD business school released on the 25/3/2010 the annual “Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010“.

Abstract from the press release:

Sweden tops the rankings of The Global Information Technology Report 2009-2010, released today for the ninth consecutive year by the World Economic Forum. Sweden is followed by Singapore and Denmark, which was in the number one position for the last three years. Switzerland (4), the United States (5) and the other Nordic countries together with the Canada, Hong Kong and the Netherlands complete the top 10.

With an extensive coverage of 133 economies worldwide, the report remains the world’s most comprehensive and authoritative international assessment of the impact of ICT on the development process and the competitiveness of nations.

The report is produced by the World Economic Forum in cooperation with INSEAD, the leading international business school, within the framework of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Network and the Industry Partnership Programme for Information Technology and Telecommunications Industries.

You can get the report on the WEF’s web site.

Before you start browsing the report, I would strongly suggest to watch the video interviews of the two authors, where the major findings are summarized:

Global Information Technology Report 2010 – Irene Mia

Global Information Technology Report 2010 – Soumitra Dutta

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Highlights from Lisbon

On March 12, 2010   /   Reviews   /   4 Comments

It was the first time I was at the FTTH Council’s conference and it was really an excellent opportunity to get first-hand the pulse of the industry and meet tons of people that I read, hear about or work with yet knew until now only by the looks of their social avatar (Pauline, Kai, Fredrik, Carlos, Tony, Magnus, to name only a few)!

Pauline, Carlos and Benoit have already put up their reviews about the event so I could only complement their views with a couple of new things. So, here’s my take-aways from the conference:

The first thing has to do with the remarkable effort of Portugal to position itself as an international FTTH pioneer. The portuguese efforts, found in the spotlight of this year’s conference, round up to the following:

  1. The public committment of the Portuguese Prime Minister Socrates to offer 100% FTTH coverage in the country by the year
  2. The serious plans of the PT (Portugal Telecom) to expand their access offerings to FTTH, covering already  1M homes and having deployed 480,0o0 km of cable.
  3. Zon, the largest cable operator in Portugal shows that 20% of their traffic is made of by video paying services (that’s much more than I’d expected) with P2P accounting for litle above 50%.

The second thing is McKinsey’s observation that regulation is a key driver (I would probably call it an on-off switch in certain cases) when it comes to broadband development. Having said that however, competition plays too often  a catalytic role to broadband market development. Take for example PT that is forced to enter the business to compete the market leader, Zon.

Last and not least, Taylor Reynolds from OECD spoke about the catalytic role of Governments and the significant role the public has to play in broadband development, especially due to the social spillovers that are not considered by the private sector’s investment decision process.

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Your Friendly Weekly Roundup

On November 24, 2009   /   Reviews, The Blog   /   1 Comment

news Your Friendly Weekly Roundup

Here’s a few links that I spent time on during the last week. They worth the attention:

eGov versus We.Gov: who wins? EU decide: Features an interesting report on European Commission’s ePractice workshop on Web 2.0 entitled “Public Service 2.0″ that reflects how web2.0 services and concepts can enrich and enhance public administration process and efficiency.

Is Denmark a lead user of user driven innovation?: An excellent read on the plan of Denmark to promote innovation (in business, society and political administration) by enabling citizens and end-users engagement in it.

Workshop: Future Fiber Architectures and Local Deployment Choices: Thanx to a pointer provided by Fiberevolution here’s an all interesting workshop on the design and operational aspects of FTTx networks.

FCC outlines seven biggest barriers to broadband adoption: A nice compilation of obstacles for broadband development. Ok, I know you know but i like it when I get to read all in one A4.

Lessons from the land of cheap broadband: A brief coverage on CNN web site about City Telecom’s business strategy in Hong Kong; which comes down to one sentence: “We try to commoditize bandwidth” (i.e. sell cheaply to the masses)

An Offer They Can’t Refuse: Spectrum Reallocation That Can Benefit Consumers, Broadcasters & the Mobile Broadband Sector: A timely report on how the new spectrum policy (digital divident) is incubated in US. The report discusses the benefits and implications of facilitating the release of broadcaster’s spectrum and the re-use of it by wireless operators (Cash for TV-Spectrum).

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My take-aways from the 11th Greek ICT Forum

On November 9, 2009   /   Government, Greece, Reviews, The Blog   /   4 Comments

notebook My take aways from the 11th Greek ICT Forum

I really enjoyed this year’s Greek ICT Forum. It was an interesting two-days forum with exceptional speakers and a few unique take-outs which I provide here for you. They really worth being noted and quoted:

Theodoros Karounos, Prime Minister’s Advisor:

- apps.gov.gr (reflections on apps.google.com)

- Let us dare to create new best practices and not only copy them

- If $10M that was the initial investment for the development of UBUNTU could help transform IT industry, imagine what we could do if we carefully invested a few hundrend of millions.

- In the future, projects should be funded only if they are financially self-sustainable (except in outstanding cases of education and culture).

Costas Doukas, President Information Society S.A.:

- Efficiency improvement and the experience and know-how gained during the last years can help the country in the next round of financing to further enhance results.

Panagioris Tsanakas, Professor, NTUA:

- When discussing VDSL vs. FTTH we must make sure that we don’t compare apples with oranges. A VDSL investment plan can only have an horizon of maximum 3 years before it is surpassed by the market demand while it can inflict  damages to the long-term national broadband plan. On the other hand, FTTH is a 30 years investment with clear committment expressed by the Government and significant socio-economic benefits.

Themis Papaioannou, Consultant:

- The low marginal cost of the next Mbit in high-speed access networks brings new opportunities for innovative business models (e.g. bandwidth on demand – being efficient to provide peak demand for a limited amount of time).

Ilias Koukouvinos, Vice President, Optronics S.A.:

- The cost of FTTH deployment in the city of Karditsa went eventually below the European average, and is much lower than the assumptions of the business plan for the national FTTH network.

Christos Bouras, Professor, University of Patras:

- We must build national, public infrastructures with long-term planning and not for addressing the immediate, contemporary socio-economic needs. This is precisely the reason why we still count bodies in our national highways.  (ed. implicating low safety and construction standards of highways for the number of fatal car accidents)

photo by infomaniac

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Berkman Center Study: Open Access Rules, Greece Ranks Under Average

On October 27, 2009   /   Reviews, The Blog   /   2 Comments

Earlier this month FCC made available a draft “Next Generation Connectivity” (links to pdf) by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society on Next Generation Access Networks and the policies endorsed by various nations in respect to broadband connectivity.

What clearly stands out in the study is the acknowledgement of the significance of efficient open access practices for broadband development. Also, this work is yet another study that further underlines the importance of long-term commitment in central policy making for a nation’s broadband success. The report covers the international status of fixed and wireless next generation access networks while it devotes a separate (although I think limited) chapter specifically relating to policies and practices of public investments.

The study considers penetration, capacity and price as the three most interesting attributes that characterize broadband development and these attributes are used to assess each of the reported national economies. Here’s how Greece is ranked in each of these categories:

Price: 13th – This comes as a natural consequence of the fierce price competition between market actors at the early stages of the market liberalization, which significantly reduced market revenues and thinned any chance for recouping investments. This lack of foresight in long-term planning resulted in high market consolidation in recent years with the “cheap” providers already bankrupt or bought-out.

Speed: 23rd – I think this rank underestimates the efforts of the country especially in the recent years, as it does not factor in the fact that other economies have a variety of alternatives (i.e. cable) while in most of them FTTH access is being offered already. In rankings that account only (copper based) DSL speeds, Greece ranks much higher, at great extent due to the fact that the high quality of OTE network compared to the networks of other incumbents.

Penetration: 27th – Penetration is low, especially for a country that is considered among the 30 wealthiest countries in the world. The reason for that is not speed and clearly not price (Greece is ranked 1st in mobile penetration despite its very expensive mobile charges). The reason (and the solution) to this is much more complicated as it seems that it is the added value of broadband for the end-user that is substantially low (i.e. consumers do not see clear benefits by subscribing for a broadband connection).

I would highly recommend reading this study (be prepared, it’s long!). It has a lot of information and although the results are oriented towards US readers it is an excellent read for others as well.

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Greece: The Broadband State of Things

On September 14, 2009   /   Greece, Reviews, The Blog   /   1 Comment

greece flag 300x200 Greece: The Broadband State of ThingsA few days ago the Observatory for Information Society in Greece released its mid-2009 report on broadband. For those not familiar with this publication, it is a biannual report on broadband developments in the country.

According to the report, Greece had, the 1st of July, 15,63 % broadband penetration (connections/100 inhabitants), which in absolute figures means something less than 1.8M connections. Following the trend, the broadband take-up rates are estimated to reach EU27 average by late 2010. Not that bad after all, considering that Greece ranked at the bottom a few years ago.

A change worth noting is that the speed attributes of retail product categories (basic, average, high) have changed. Basic access includes offerings up to 2Mbps, and accordingly average and high access products include offerings up to 8Mbps and 24Mbps. Last year, the categorization separated products in 1,2 and 4Mbps speed levels. Well, for a country that plans a country-wide FTTH network, I guess that considering 24Mbps as a high access product makes definitely more sense!

The last important observation is that active wholesale offerings by the incumbent (i.e. bitstream) is decreasing rapidly (bitstream market share decreases by 5% on a monthly basis) with LLU increasing 5 fold compared to bitsteam connections.

Overall, the market is clearly matured with adequate electronic infrastructures in place to leverage on incumbent’s copper. I only hope it will not take that long to reach the same level of maturity when fiber comes along, and that all involved parties will learn from past experience.

Finally, the current 1.8M broadband connections makes the governmental FTTH plan of 2M homes passed absolutely reasonable (some could – maybe rightfully – argue that it should have gone even bolder) despite what has been said so far by many about the necessity of such an investment in terms of scale and scope.

Post Scriptum: It would be nice if the next report started reporting some quality metrics. The success of national markets is not only measured by the number of connections but also by the level of customer satisfaction.

You can get the full report here.

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New Blogs on the Block

On August 25, 2009   /   Reviews, The Blog   /   2 Comments

skopelos3 300x248 New Blogs on the BlockThis Monday I came back to the office after my (rather) long holidays (the first true holidays I had in the last 4 years – I admit that I checked email only every 4-5 days, which feels as nice and “forbidden” as eating meat during the holly week!!).

As I am picking up pace, browsing through August’s 1800+ rss news (some, very very interesting) and while I prepare myself to get down with the 2 folders waiting impatiently on my top draw, I’d like to share with you a couple of additions in the broadband blogo/news-sphere which I find interesting and promising:

The first is John Bartell’s FTTxtra which focuses primarily on the vendor/equipment market. John picked the same theme I did for Broadband Prime which I think it’s cool!

The second is Pauline Rigby’s personal blog. Pauline was the editor of FibreSystems Europe until recently with an excellent insight to the market.

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FTTH in Germany

On June 27, 2009   /   Reviews, The Blog   /   2 Comments

Germany flag 300x203 FTTH in GermanyPart of my work involves keeping a detailed directory of all active FTTH projects worldwide. Germany was one the European countries I had little information registered in my detailed addendum. All that until recently, when I finished reading the “Fiber in Germany” study prepared by Seim & Partner.

The authors, Sabine Finke and Kai Seim, provide an overview of FTTH activity in Germany and enough details to keep you busy especially if you are not so familiar with the German market, like I was. The study is priced at less than 50 euros and you can get information on how to obtain it at  Seim & Partners website or at Kai’s blog.

The authors plan for a second edition of the report at the end of 2009 with updated information for existing and new projects. I do look forward to see this publication turning into a yearly report on the German FTTH market.

There are two topics I look forward to see reported in more detail in the upcoming edition of the report: a) business models and b) ownership structure. Yet, I understand this may be a little more to ask, especially with the market being so young. Overall I find the study a good money for value proposition and an excellent resource for understanding the current status and dynamics of the German FTTH market.

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