Posts by Sloping Shoulders

5G depressing investment?

As well as the 'dead spots' where fixed-line broadband is not yet fibre to the cabinet, there are also lots of places where the speed is substantially below 24MBps (we are on FTTC but average 14Mbps due to distance from the cabinet). We had been hoping either for more Openreach investment or the availability of FTTP (even self-funded) but this seems to suggest we have more chance waiting for 5G and dropping fixed line broadband - which if is seen as a route ahead would surely cause Openreach to drop any future deployment investment in domestic lines and fibre?

Happy with your pension?

You might not be happy with this LEGAL tax arrangement, and rail against the rich - but the vast, vast majority of shareholders for businesses like IBM are pension funds. And US corporation law forces IBM to maximize return on shareholder assets. And if you want to reduce those returns, then you are actually hurting pensioners. Well done. Plus of course you want to move those funds away from pension funds and into the bottomless pit of government - where no money is spent efficiently, if if can more easily be wasted.

Cheap

And all that, according to the article for just £30000 - I am pretty sure you are missing some digits.

How many others read this and went to look up the Carrington Event?

Roll on PVRs

This would be a substantial shift, and in many ways a tax on the less technically savvy - presently it is easy to catch up on iplayer and the other rival broadcaster online offerings. But equally you could use a PVR, or track down what you need on the internet. By moving to a pay as you consume model on iplayer, those users with PVRs - especially multi-tuner ones with large storage will find iplayer - and the forthcoming YouView plans less appealing - but those viewers who simply consume what there is, and are currently being encouraged to consume over iplayer will be the ones hardest hit.

Interesting that in the US they get Hulu and other solutions for free - and get some of the best programs where as we get 99% dross and will be asked to pay twice or more..

A funny side note - I was halfway through reading this when I guessed this must be an Andrew Orlowski article - I do enjoy his writing, even if his style does annoy some others

It's not the peak speed, it's peak usage

Being in a medium size Surrey village we have to rely on a single BT wholesale connection, which is fine most days - but every evening, when the village is using it to skype, or stream TV or play video games, the speed drops from acceptable to unusable. This situation will only get worse until the exchange gets additional choice for the backhaul, or we get fibre to cabinets

Text based messages?

Surely they should be coding an app for that? Taking lots of medicines isn't just for seniors - and with the smartphone/app growth a better approach would be for the app on the phone