Following Intellect’s successful 4G Mobile Broadband conference, I would like to thank our speakers and panellists for their enlightening and provoking presentations and insights during the panel discussions.

Our day was kicked off by John Higgins who introduced John Woodget of Intel, followed by H Nwana of Ofcom and Frank Mather of the European Commission.

John Woodget spoke about the service provider sector - particularly the need for the industry to regain leadership. Intel believes this can be facilitated by a number of measures including; swift release of spectrum, development of longer term strategies, regaining international influence and the promotion of UK industry. (more…)

Technorati Tags: 4G, Adam Pollard, Analysis Mason, Android, Andy Nuttal, Apple, Blue Nowhere, DCMS, Dr Matt Yardley, Ed Vaizey, EU, European Commission, Everything Everywhere, Google, H Nwana, ICT KTN, Intel, intellect, iPhone, John Woodget, Kip Meek, LTE, mobile broadband, mobile network operators, Ofcom, Peter Curnow-Ford, Philip Hargrave, Skype, Stephen Lerner, Three, Vodafone, Wimax

In its Future of digital terrestrial broadcasting paper, Intellect reported that the completion of digital switchover in the UK will most likely be a success. The vast majority of homes in the UK are already enjoying digital television, but what does it really mean for consumers? Because digital information is sent compressed, you can enjoy higher quality of pictures and sound, as well as more channels. Homes with TVs connected to the internet can benefit from more interactive features, such as online voting in live TV shows.

(more…)

Technorati Tags: 3D HD., digital cinema, digital entertainment, digital television, Future of digital terrestrial broadcasting, Google, high-speed broadband, Kiran Adimatyam, YouTube

An interesting posting appeared on Google’s public policy blog yesterday which once again set out not only their support for smart meters but what they are doing to better leverage their use. One key part of this is the Google PowerMeter. In brief, it will enable users to access information about their own energy use on their iGoogle home page. This reminds me of an earlier posting which highlighted that it is possible to receive updates about your home’s energy use via Twitter.
(more…)

Technorati Tags: Google, smart meters

Issues around data security/management/usage etc constantly provoke debate and strong opinions. Yesterday, at an event organised by Google, this was certainly the case as co-founder Larry Page highlighted the benefits of storing user data vis-à-vis the predicting of potential pandemics. However, he felt that their ability to do this – using Google Flu Trends – would be dramatically weakened if search data had to be erased after six months (a desire of the European Commission). In fact, Mr Page went so far as to say that the less data that companies like Google were able to hold the “more likely we all are to die”. Strong stuff, eh?

(more…)

Technorati Tags: data, Google